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LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/lincolnhoosierabOOvann 


Copyright  1928  by 
Charles  Garrett  Vannest 

Printed  in  U.  S.  A. 


jP. 

jykj 

^fT;l  i 

k 

Lincoln  the  Hoosier 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S 
LIFE  IN  INDIANA 

By 

CHAELES  GARRETT  VANNEST,  PH.D. 
Head  Assistant  Harris  Teachers'  College,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


Eden  Publishing  House 

st.  louis  -  chicago 

1928 


-3 
C2V3 


Dedicated  to 

Indiana,  the  Hoosier  State 

that  gave  to  the  world 
the  Great  Emancipator 

Abraham  Lincoln 


PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  prove  that  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  a  Hoosier.  The  work  will  stress 
Lincoln's  environment  during  the  formative  period 
of  his  life — from  the  age  of  seven  to  twenty-one — 
during  which  time  he  lived  in  Indiana.  The  author 
believes  that  he  has  proved  that  Lincoln  had  an 
ample  opportunity  to  secure  a  liberal  education  by 
the  time  he  became  of  age  and  that  he  did  so.  He 
also  believes  that  he  has  set  forth  sufficient  facts 
to  show  that  Lincoln  was  not  surrounded  by  a 
cramped  cultural  environment,  but  that,  on  the  con- 
trary, he  lived  among  men  and  women  the  intellec- 
tual equals  of  any  in  the  Old  Northwest.  Lincoln's 
blood  and  environment  explain  him.  This  work, 
then,  is  given  over  almost  wholly  to  these  two  fac- 
tors. It  aims  at  completeness  since  the  author  be- 
lieves that  he  has  brought  together  about  all  there  is 
to  be  known  of  Lincoln's  life  in  Indiana. 

Charles  Garrett  Vannest. 

Harris  Teachers  College 

St.  Louis,  Missouri 

August  13, 1928 


VII 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  obliga- 
tions to  the  authors  and  publishers  of  the  great 
number  of  books  and  magazines,  listed  in  the  refer- 
ences, from  which  he  was  granted  permission  to  use 
material.  He  is  under  special  obligations  to  the 
various  members  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  His- 
torical Society  for  the  help  they  have  so  freely  given 
him  and  for  permission  to  use  excerpts  from  their 
articles ;  to  John  E.  Iglehart  of  Evansville,  Indiana, 
Mrs.  Bess  Ehrmann  of  Rockport,  Indiana,  Rev.  J. 
Edward  Murr  of  New  Albany,  Indiana,  and  Joseph 
W.  Walker  of  Batesville,  Indiana,  who  have  been 
untiring  in  their  efforts  to  aid  him ;  to  Miss  Estelle 
Wolfe,  reference  librarian  of  Indiana  University 
who  looked  up  so  many  references  for  him;  to  the 
Indiana  Historical  Commission,  Indianapolis,  In- 
diana ;  to  the  librarians  of  Indiana  University,  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  St.  Louis  University,  Washing- 
ton University,  and  Evansville  College;  to  the  li- 
brarians of  the  Public  Library  of  Evansville,  In- 
diana, and  St.  Louis,  Missouri;  to  Miss  Margaret 
A.  Neary  of  the  Columbia  school,  St.  Louis,  Missouri, 
for  the  collection  and  arrangement  of  the  poems 
used  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapters;  to  my  col- 
leagues, Dr.  Ernest  Hoffsten  and  Miss  Inez  Speck- 
ing of  Harris  Teachers'  College,  St.  Louis,  Missouri, 
who  kindly  read  the  entire  manuscript ;  and  last  but 
not  least  to  Reverend  Lawrence  J.  Kenny  and  Rev- 
erend Gilbert  J.  Garraghan  of  St.  Louis  University 
without  whose  kind  help  the  work  would  not  have 
been  undertaken. 

Charles  Garrett  Vannest. 


IX 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Preface '. vii 

Acknowledgments ix 

Chapter  Page 

I.    Lincoln's  Paternal  Ancestry 1 

II.    Lincoln's  Maternal  Ancestry 15 

III.  The  Stories  of  the  Illegitimacy  of  Abraham 
Lincoln 26 

IV.  Early  Influences 41 

V.    Lincoln's  Early  Biographers 49 

VI.    Abraham  Lincoln's  Schooling 56 

VII.    Abraham  Lincoln's  Education 65 

VIII.    The  Books  that  Lincoln  Read 82 

IX.    Lincoln's  Intellectual  Environment  ...  99 

X.    Lincoln  as  a  Writer 123 

XI.    Abraham  Lincoln's  Religion 133 

XII.    Lincoln  and  the  Slavery  Question  ....  140 

XIII.  Lincoln's  Vocations  and  Avocations  .    .    .  146 

XIV.  Lincoln's  Characteristics 165 

XV.    Lincoln  the  Hoosier 187 

XVI.    The  Lincolns  Move  to  Illinois 205 

Appendix 211 

References 237 

Bibliography 250 

Index 255 


XI 


"Childhood's  plastic  mould,  youth's  glowing  am- 
bition, and  the  bold  resolves  of  adolescence,  in  which 
three  forms  alone  character  and  destiny  are  deter- 
mined, find  the  sixteenth  President  of  the  United 
States  a  resident  of  Indiana.  By  every  force  that 
marks  a  man,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Hoosier.  .  .  . 
Those  actions,  which  make  such  lustrous  pages  in 
the  nation's  history  that  all  the  world  pays  homage 
to  them,  had  their  roots  in  character  that  drew  its 
substance  from  the  soil  of  Indiana.  .  .  .  And  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  is  the  greatest  Indianian  of  all  times." 
— Colonel  Richard  Lieber  in  the  National  Republic, 
December,  1927. 


Xll 


"Those  who  have  greatly  achieved  are  those  who 
have  responded  to  character,  to  ideals,  to  truth,  and 
to  convictions.  Character,  ideals,  and  convictions 
come  in  youth.  The  man  who  does  not  love  truth, 
honor,  virtue,  patience,  and  zeal  from  early  man- 
hood is  not  guided  by  them  in  trying  hours  of  su- 
preme need  that  come  in  after  years.  Men  may  gain 
knowledge  in  later  life,  but  a  passion  for  the  virtues 
comes  only  in  the  days  of  youth. 

Character  made  Lincoln  great.  His  character 
received  its  definite  bent  and  form  from  the  influ- 
ences that  surrounded  him  in  the  State  of  Indiana. 
The  impress  of  home,  of  mother,  and  of  kin;  the 
hold  of  nature  and  of  out-of-doors ;  the  influence  of 
books;  the  power  of  friendships  and  associations; 
and  the  first  strong  call  of  the  great  world  left  their 
lines  upon  his  soul  while  it  was  wax.  When  it  had 
hardened  to  the  grim  need  of  after  years  those  lines 
were  found  graven  in  granite.  The  world  knows 
and  admires  in  Lincoln  the  virtues  he  learned  in 
the  lap  of  Southern  Indiana." — Theodore  T.  Frank- 
en  berg  in  The  Indiana  Lincoln  Union  booklet, 
"Lincoln  the  Hoosier." 


Xlll 


CHAPTER  I 
LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY 

His  Early  Ancestry 

"Immortal  things  have  God  for  architect, 
And  men  are  but  the  granite  he  lays  down." 
— John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

Heredity  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  explain  or  to 
account  for  Abraham  Lincoln  but  it  should  be  care- 
fully considered,  for  we  can  better  understand  this 
great  character  by  a  knowledge  of  the  kind  of  blood 
that  flowed  in  his  veins. 

Samuel  Lincoln  was  the  first  American  ancestor  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  He  came  from  England  to  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  in  1637.  His  father  was  probably 
Edward  Lincoln  of  Hingham,  Norfolk  County,  Eng- 
land. Samuel  Lincoln  married  a  woman  whose  first 
name  was  Martha  but  whose  surname  is  not  known. 
Samuel  and  Martha  Lincoln  had  eleven  children,  the 
fourth  son  being  Mordecai,  born  at  Hingham,  Massa- 
chusetts, June  14,  1657.  Mordecai  Lincoln  married 
Sarah  Jones.  Their  eldest  child  was  born  April  24, 
1686,  and  was  named  Mordecai.  He  married  Han- 
nah Salter  of  Freehold,  New  Jersey.  The  eldest 
child  of  Mordecai  and  Hannah  Lincoln  was  John 
Lincoln,  born  May  3,  1716.  He  married  Mrs.  Re- 
becca Morris.  The  eldest  son  of  this  marriage  was 
Abraham  Lincoln,  grandfather  of  President  Lincoln, 
born  May  13,  1744,  in  Berks  County,  Pennsylvania, 
from  whence  the  Lincolns  moved  to  Virginia. 

Abraham  Lincoln  moved  from  Virginia  to  Ken- 
tucky in  1782  where  four  years  later  he  was  killed 


2  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

by  the  Indians.  To  Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  wife, 
Bersheba  Herring,  five  children  were  born.  The 
oldest  was  Mordecai,  who  was  born  about  1771.  He 
became  sheriff  of  Washington  County,  Kentucky, 
and  later  moved  to  Hancock  County,  Illinois,  where 
he  died  in  1830.  To  Mordecai  Lincoln  three  sons 
were  born — Abraham,  James,  and  Mordecai ;  and 
three  daughters  —  Elizabeth,  Mary  Rowena,  and 
Martha.  The  second  son  of  Abraham  and  Bersheba 
Lincoln  was  Josiah  Lincoln,  born  about  1773.  He 
removed  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana  where  he  died 
in  1836,  leaving  four  daughters  and  two  sons, 
Thomas  of  Milltown,  Indiana,  and  Jacob,  who  moved 
to  Missouri.  The  third  child  of  Abraham  and  Ber- 
sheba Lincoln  was  a  daughter,  Mary,  born  about 

1775,  who  married  Ralph  Crume  of  Nelson  County, 
Kentucky.  The  fourth  child  was  Thomas  Lincoln, 
father  of  the  President.  He  was  born  on  Linville 
Creek,  in  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  in  January, 

1776,  and  died  in  Illinois,  January  17,  1851.  The 
fifth  and  last  child  was  a  daughter,  Nancy,  born  in 
1780,  who  married  William  Brumfield  of  Washing- 
ton County,  Kentucky. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  Thomas  Lincoln 
married  Nancy  Hanks,  a  beautiful  woman  six  years 
his  junior.  The  wedding  took  place  at  Beechland, 
Washington  County,  Kentucky,  June  12,  1806,  in 
the  home  of  Richard  Berry.  To  Thomas  and  Nancy 
Hanks  Lincoln  three  children  were  born,  all  of  them 
in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky.  The  first  was  a  daugh- 
ter, Sarah,  born  February  10,  1807;  the  second  a 
son,  Abraham,  born  February  12,  1809 ;  the  third  a 
son,  Thomas,  born  in  1811,  who  died  in  infancy,  be- 
fore the  Lincolns  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana. 


LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY  3 

His  Father  Thomas  Lincoln 
Thomas  Lincoln,  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
was  a  powerfully  built  man.  Dennis  Hanks  said 
that  he  was  so  "tight  and  compact  that  he  could 
never  find  the  points  of  separation  between  his  ribs, 
though  he  felt  for  them  often."  He  was  about  five 
feet  ten  inches  tall  and  weighed  from  one  hundred 
eighty  to  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  pounds.  His 
face  was  round  and  full,  his  complexion  dark,  his 
hair  coarse  and  black,  his  eyes  a  dark  hazel,  and  his 
nose  large  and  prominent.  He  was  slightly  stooped, 
somewhat  round-shouldered,  and  had  a  slow,  halt- 
ing walk. 

Thomas  Lincoln  spent  most  of  his  youth  in 
Washington  County,  Kentucky.  The  death  of  his 
father,  when  he  was  but  a  lad  of  ten,  was  a  hard 
blow  to  him,  for  he  was  soon  thrown  upon  his  own 
resources.  However,  his  life  as  a  boy  has  often 
been  painted  in  too  dark  a  setting.  His  mother,  Ber- 
sheba  Lincoln,  some  months  after  the  death  of  her 
husband,  moved  to  Washington  County,  Kentucky, 
where  she  had  friends  and  relatives.  Among  these 
were  Hananiah  Lincoln,  who  was  her  husband's 
cousin,  a  well-to-do  man,  appearing  in  the  records 
as  a  "gentleman,"  the  Berrys,  the  Thompsons,  and 
the  Hankses.  Bersheba  Lincoln  lived  until  about 
1793,  dying  when  Thomas  was  seventeen  years  of 
age.  Are  we  not  to  think  that  his  mother  gave 
Thomas  every  attention  possible,  including  the  rudi- 
ments of  an  education;  and  that  she  further  im- 
pressed upon  his  mind  the  strict  moral  code  that 
prevailed  among  the  people  with  whom  she  was 
associated  ? 

It  is  believed  that  Thomas  Lincoln,  shortly  after 


4  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

the  death  of  his  mother,  visited  his  uncle,  Isaac  Lin- 
coln, a  prosperous  farmer  of  the  Wautauga  Valley 
in  Tennessee.  There  he  remained  about  a  year,  re- 
turning to  the  home  of  his  oldest  brother,  Mordecai, 
in  Washington  County,  Kentucky.  He  remained 
there  for  some  time,  working  at  odd  jobs,  but  grow- 
ing tired  of  that,  he  set  out  for  himself. 

The  guess  work  that  has  prevailed  in  the  bio- 
graphies of  Thomas  Lincoln  is  not  justified,  for  the 
tax  rolls  and  records  of  Kentucky  bear  his  name  for 
every  year  from  1795  to  1816,  with  the  exception 
of  the  year  1798.  In  1795,  at  the  age  of  nineteen, 
he  served  for  two  months  in  the  Kentucky  militia 
against  the  Indians.1  The  next  year,  1796,  he  was 
in  the  employ  of  Samuel  Haycraft,  helping  to  dig 
a  raceway  for  a  mill  and  doing  carpentry  work.2 
He  continued  this  work  during  the  next  year,  the 
money  he  thus  made,  together  with  his  later  sav- 
ings, no  doubt  going  into  the  farm  he  purchased  in 
1803.3  In  1798,  it  is  generally  believed  that  he  vis- 
ited his  uncle  in  Tennessee  and  worked  for  him  as 
a  hired  hand.4  In  1799  he  was  back  in  Washington 
County,  Kentucky,  where  his  name  appears  on  the 
tax-rolls,  assessed  for  two  horses.5  The  next  year 
he  was  assessed  in  the  same  county  for  one  horse6 
as  he  was  the  following  year.7  In  the  fall  of  1802, 
Lincoln  moved  from  Washington  County  to  Hardin 
County,  accompanying  his  mother,  Bersheba,  and 
his  two  married  sisters.8 

In  1803  he  purchased  from  John  Stator  for  £118 
cash  the  Mill  Creek  farm  of  230  acres.  The  records 
show  he  was  taxed  for  the  farm  that  year.9  This 
same  year  we  find  Lincoln  doing  jury  service10  and 
also  acting  as  guard  over  a  prisoner  at  Elizabeth- 


LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY  5 

town.11  The  next  year,  1804,  we  find  him  still  doing 
jury  service.12  That  same  year  he  and  his  neigh- 
bors petitioned  for  a  road  that  ran  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  his  Mill  Creek  farm.13  This  road  is  now 
a  part  of  the  Dixie  Highway  between  Elizabethtown 
and  Camp  Knox.  In  1805  he  was  appointed  one 
of  the  patrollers  or  policemen  for  Hardin  County, 
a  duty  that  he  performed  for  three  months.14  In 
1806  he  married  Nancy  Hanks  and  soon  went  to 
housekeeping  in  Elizabethtown,  where  the  next  year 
he  purchased  a  lot15  on  which  Samuel  Haycraft,  the 
historian  of  Elizabethtown,  says  he  built  a  cabin.16 
In  1808  the  records  show  that  Lincoln  acted  as 
guard  over  a  murderer  held  for  trial  in  Elizabeth- 
town.17. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1807,  Lincoln  contracted 
with  Denton  Geoghegan  to  hew  logs  for  his  saw- 
mill. Geoghegan  refused  to  pay  him  the  balance 
due,  and  Lincoln  brought  suit  in  March  and  was 
awarded  the  contract  price.18  Geoghegan  appealed 
the  case  but  lost  it.19  He  then  brought  suit  against 
Lincoln  on  the  ground  that  his  work  was  not 
properly  done  and  that  on  account  of  it  he  had  suf- 
fered damages  to  the  extent  of  one  hundred  dollars. 
For  a  third  time  Lincoln  won  the  case.  During  the 
year  1808  Lincoln  was  doing  jury  service20  as  he  was 
again  in  1809,  1811,  and  1812.  During  these  years 
he  came  in  contact  with  some  brilliant  lawyers,  es- 
pecially with  James  Breckenridge,  whose  fame  was 
so  great  throughout  the  country  that  a  few  years 
later,  Lincoln's  son,  Abraham,  walked  from  his 
Spencer  County  home  to  Boonville  to  hear  him  plead 
a  murder  case.  In  this  same  year,  1808,  Lincoln 
purchased  some  more  real  estate — another  lot  in 


6  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Elizabethtown21  and  three  hundred  acres  of  land  on 
South  Fork  of  Nolin  Creek  for  which  he  paid  to  the 
owner,  Isaac  Bush,  two  hundred  dollars  in  cash  and 
assumed  a  small  amount  due  to  a  former  owner.22 
Lincoln  still  had  his  Mill  Creek  farm  of  230  acres 
and  also  his  Elizabethtown  property  at  the  time  of 
the  birth  of  his  son,  Abraham,  February  12,  1809. 
Thus  we  see  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  son  of 
a  farmer  who  owned  at  least  530  acres  of  land  at 
the  time  of  his  birth.  Six  years  later,  in  1815, 
Thomas  Lincoln  purchased  the  Knob  Creek  farm 
and  had  at  that  time  786  acres  of  land.  But,  as  we 
shall  see,  his  title  was  not  clear  and  on  account  of 
reverses  in  litigation  he  decided  to  leave  Kentucky 
for  Indiana. 

In  1814,  Lincoln,  together  with  three  other  men, 
was  appointed  to  appraise  the  estate  of  Jonathan 
Joseph,  deceased.23  One  of  these  men  was  Joseph 
La  Follette,  the  greatgrandfather  of  the  late  Sena- 
tor Robert  M.  La  Follette  of  Wisconsin,  who  was 
a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States 
in  1924  on  the  Independent  ticket.  In  1816  Lin- 
coln's name  appears  on  the  marriage  bond  of  Caleb 
Hazel,  Abraham's  school  teacher  in  Kentucky.24 
The  same  year  Lincoln  was  appointed  road  super- 
visor over  that  section  of  the  road  between  Nolin 
and  Bardstown.25 

Rev.  Mr.  Louis  A.  Warren  of  Zionsville,  Indiana, 
who  has  made  a  thorough  study  of  Lincoln's  par- 
entage, says:  "The  writer,  after  examining  thou- 
sands of  public  records  in  Kentucky,  affirms  that 
there  is  no  document  of  which  he  is  aware  that  is 
detrimental  in  any  way  to  the  reputation  of  Thomas 
Lincoln.     Hundreds  of  documents  have  been  read 


LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY  7 

charging  others  with  drunkenness,  adultery,  engag- 
ing in  riots,  breaking  the  Lord's  day,  assault  and 
battery,  profane  swearing,  and  so  on,  but  the  name 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  never  appears  among  the  ac- 
cused. The  very  absence  of  his  name,  on  many 
records  where  we  should  expect  to  find  the  name 
of  such  a  character  as  he  is  reported  to  have  been, 
is  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  his  favor."26 
So  the  record  of  Thomas  Lincoln  is  a  clear  and  hon- 
orable one.  He  was  an  industrious  day  laborer,  car- 
penter, and  farmer,  and  he  paid  his  debts  and  his 
taxes. 

This  simple  pioneer  was  not  only  a  moral  but 
also  a  deeply  religious  man.  Honesty  was  a  passion 
with  him  as  it  was  with  his  illustrious  son  and  as 
it  is  with  all  the  Lincolns  to  the  present  day.  He 
was  a  Baptist  in  Kentucky,  where  he  and  Nancy  and 
their  children  attended  the  Baptist  Church.  After 
his  removal  to  Indiana,  Thomas  Lincoln  continued 
his  affiliation  with  the  Baptist  Church.  Mr.  Louis 
Varner  of  Boonville,  Indiana,  has  possession  of  the 
minutes-book  of  the  Little  Pigeon  Baptist  Church  in 
which  are  recorded  the  minutes  of  the  business  meet- 
ings of  the  church  covering  many  years  from  the 
date  of  its  organization.  Although  the  church  was 
organized  in  1816,  a  church  building  was  not  erected 
until  1822,  and  when  finally  built  was  located  within 
a  mile  of  the  Lincoln  home.  We  read  in  the  min- 
utes: "June  7,  1823,  received  Brother  Thomas  Lin- 
coln by  letter."  From  the  time  Lincoln  became  a 
member  of  the  Pigeon  Creek  Church  until  he  moved 
to  Illinois  in  1830  he  was  very  active  in  all  church 
affairs.  During  three  of  those  seven  years  he  was 
a  trustee  and  could  have  served  longer  had  he  not 


8  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

asked  to  be  relieved.  He  served  on  a  committee  to 
visit  neighboring  churches  as  was  the  custom  in 
those  days.  He  was  often  found  on  committees 
whose  duty  it  was  to  investigate  and  report  upon 
the  actions  and  conduct  of  certain  church  members. 
The  minutes-book  shows  that  Lincoln  helped  to  sup- 
port the  church.  It  contains  but  one  record  of  sub- 
scriptions to  the  church  but  we  read  there  that  Lin- 
coln and  others  signed  the  list  agreeing  to  deliver 
"at  the  meeting  hoas  in  good  marchanable  produce" 
the  articles  annexed  after  their  names.  The  prod- 
uce was  to  be  "corn  wheat  whiskey  pork  Linnen 
wool  or  any  other  article  or  material  to  do  the  work 
with."  We  read:  "Thomas  Lincoln  in  corn  manu- 
factured pounds  24."27 

Thomas  Lincoln  was  not  an  educated  man  in  the 
present  day  understanding  of  the  term,  but  he  did 
care  enough  about  education  to  learn  to  write  his 
name.  And  we  have  documentary  evidence  to  show 
this.  In  1801  he  and  Josiah  Lincoln  signed  their 
names  as  witnesses  to  a  certificate  of  Kathren 
Bridges,  giving  her  consent  to  her  daughter's  mar- 
riage.28 Again  he  was  witness  to  a  note  made  by 
Jacob  Vanmatre  to  Samuel  Haycraft  in  1803  and 
signed  his  name  in  a  clear  hand.29  In  1804  he  was 
one  of  the  petitioners  for  a  road.30  His  marriage 
bond  of  June  10,  1806,  bears  his  name  in  his  own 
handwriting.31  Thomas  Lincoln  did  not  oppose  the 
education  of  his  children  and  the  best  proof  we  have 
of  this  is  that  from  the  lips  of  his  son :  "My  father 
insisted  that  none  of  his  children  should  suffer  for 
the  want  of  an  education  as  he  had." 

There  was  good  blood  in  the  veins  of  Thomas 
Lincoln;  he  was  not  of  "the  poor  white  trash"  of 


LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY  9 

the  South.  His  father,  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  a 
prosperous  Kentucky  pioneer,  who  had  come  from 
Virginia  as  a  friend  of  Daniel  Boone.  No  doubt  he 
had  as  much  of  the  world's  goods  as  any  of  his  neigh- 
bors, for  the  inventory  of  his  estate,  returned  by 
the  appraisers  on  March  10,  1789,  showed  that  he 
had  personal  property  valued  at  £68  16s  6d,  and  he 
owned  5,544  acres  of  land.32  Although  Abraham 
Lincoln's  mother,  Nancy  Hanks,  was  not  of  the 
"first  families"  of  Virginia,  yet  the  Hanks's  blood 
has  never  been  tainted  with  vice  or  crime.  Too 
long  have  writers  been  mistaken  on  this  subject; 
too  long  have  they  recorded  many  statements  that 
are  not  true. 

Witness  the  following: 

"Abraham  Lincoln  came  of  the  most  unpromis- 
ing stock  on  the  continent,  'the  poor  white  trash'  of 
the  South.  His  shiftless  father  moved  from  place 
to  place  in  the  western  country,  failing  where  every- 
body else  was  successful  in  making  a  living;  and 
the  boy  had  spent  the  most  susceptible  years  of  his 
life  under  no  discipline  but  that  of  degrading  pov- 
erty."33 

"Thomas  seems  to  have  been  the  only  member 
of  the  family  whose  character  was  not  entirely  re- 
spectable. He  was  idle,  thriftless,  poor,  a  hunter, 
and  a  rover.  In  1806  we  find  him  in  Hardin  County, 
trying  to  learn  the  carpenter's  trade."34 

"By  the  middle  of  1806,  Lincoln  had  acquired  a 
very  limited  knowledge  of  the  carpenter's  trade,  and 
set  up  on  his  own  account ;  but  his  achievements  in 
this  line  were  no  better  than  those  of  his  previous 
life.  He  was  employed  occasionally  to  do  rough 
work,  that  requires  neither  science  nor  skill;  but 


10  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

nobody  alleges  that  he  ever  built  a  house,  or  pre- 
tended to  do  more  than  a  few  little  odd  jobs  con- 
nected with  such  an  undertaking.  He  soon  got  tired 
of  the  business,  as  he  did  of  everything  else  that 
required  application  and  labor.  He  was  no  boss, 
not  even  an  average  journeyman,  nor  a  steady 
hand."35 

"Lincoln  had  previously  courted  a  girl  named 
Sally  Bush,  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Eliza- 
bethtown ;  but  his  suit  was  unsuccessful,  and  she  be- 
came the  wife  of  Johnston,  the  jailer.  Her  reason 
for  rejecting  Lincoln  comes  down  to  us  in  no  words 
of  her  own;  but  it  is  clear  enough  that  it  was  his 
want  of  character,  and  the  'bad  luck*  as  the  Hankses 
have  it,  which  always  attended  him."36 

"Thomas  Lincoln  took  another  wife,  but  he  al- 
ways loved  Sally  Bush,  as  much  as  he  was  capable 
of  loving  anybody ;  and  years  afterwards,  when  her 
husband  and  his  wife  were  both  dead,  he  returned 
suddenly  from  the  wilds  of  Indiana,  and,  represent- 
ing himself  as  a  thriving  and  prosperous  farmer, 
induced  her  to  marry  him."37 

Let  us  analyze  the  above  statements.  History 
records  that  "the  poor  white  trash"  of  the  South  did 
not  leave  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  and  push  out 
into  the  frontier  to  wrestle  with  nature  and  fight 
there  the  hard  battles  of  life.  Unable  to  compete 
in  the  great  economic  struggle,  they  were  pushed  off 
their  holdings  or  sold  them  to  the  expanding  slav- 
ocracy  and  settled  down  on  the  poor,  unused,  or 
used-up  lands  where  they  eked  out  a  miserable  ex- 
istence. The  Lincoln  family  was  not  of  this  type; 
for  a  century  and  a  half  the  Lincolns  had  been  in 
the  front  ranks  of  those  sturdy  men  who  opened  up 


LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY  11 

and  developed  a  continent.  And  so  were  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Hanks  family. 

And  right  here  let  us  add  a  little  to  the  documen- 
tary evidence  gathered  by  Rev.  Mr.  Louis  A.  War- 
ren to  help  explode  the  theory  that  Thomas  Lincoln 
was  the  shiftless  man  he  has  been  pictured  by  most 
of  his  biographers.  The  classic  example  used  to 
prove  his  shiftlessness  is  that  he  entered  a  quarter 
section  of  land  in  Spencer  County,  Indiana,  and  re- 
linquished half  of  it  to  the  United  States  govern- 
ment because  he  was  too  lazy  and  indifferent  to  pay 
for  all  of  it.  The  simplest  study  of  economics  should 
suffice  to  explain  this.  Let  us  quote  from  Thomas 
Nixon  Carver,  Professor  of  Economics  in  Harvard 
University.  Speaking  of  the  balancing  of  the  fac- 
tors of  production,  Prof.  Carver  says: 

"The  farmer  who  had  plenty  of  land  and  tools, 
but  no  horses,  oxen,  or  tractors,  would  not  be 
able  to  use  either  his  land  or  his  tools  effectively. 
If  he  could  not  raise  the  money  in  any  other  way, 
it  would  pay  him  to  sell  some  of  his  tools  or  some 
of  his  land  and  buy  horses,  in  order  to  restore  the 
balance.  .  .  .  Again,  however  much  land  he  might 
possess,  if  he  lacked  equipment,  his  farm  would  not 
be  very  productive.  It  would  pay  him,  if  he  could 
not  raise  the  money  in  any  other  way,  to  sell  some 
of  his  land  in  order  to  buy  equipment  of  various 
kinds.  Some  of  our  frontier  farmers  found  them- 
selves in  possession  of  a  soil  which  was  very  rich 
in  plant  food.  They  lacked,  however,  other  forms 
of  capital,  or  the  money  wherewith  to  purchase 
building  materials,  machinery,  live  stock,  etc.  Many 
of  them  virtually  sold  their  surplus  soil ;  that  is,  they 
grew  such  crops  as  they  could,  sold  them  off,  and 


12  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

took  no  pains  to  replace  the  fertility  which  was 
used  up  in  the  growing  of  the  crops.  They  are  said 
to  have  "mined  the  soil ;"  that  is  to  say,  as  the  miner 
extracts  his  mineral  and  puts  nothing  back,  so  many 
of  these  frontier  farmers  extracted  plant  food  and 
put  nothing  back.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  this 
from  the  point  of  view  of  national  policy,  it  was, 
under  the  circumstances,  undoubtedly  good  business 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  farmer.  He  was  try- 
ing to  balance  up  his  establishment.  Having  an 
abundance  of  plant  food  in  his  soil,  but  very  little 
of  anything  else,  he  found  it  to  his  advantage  to  sell 
some  of  his  plant  food  in  order  to  put  up  houses, 
barns,  and  fences  and  purchase  machinery  and  live 
stock.  He  was  doing  virtually  the  same  thing  that 
another  farmer  would  do  who  found  himself  in  the 
possession  of  a  large  number  of  horses  and  no  plows 
or  harrows  to  which  to  hitch  his  teams.  It  would 
pay  him  to  sell  off  some  of  his  horses  and  buy 
enough  equipment  to  make  the  remaining  horses 
productive."38 

The  above  paragraph  by  Prof.  Carver  tells  ex- 
actly what  Thomas  Lincoln  and  other  pioneer  farm- 
ers did.  They  had  too  much  land  to  use  econom- 
ically. They  used  it  up  and  moved  on,  for  land  was 
cheap.  It  was  not  shiftlessness  that  led  the  Lin- 
colns  from  New  England  to  New  Jersey,  from  New 
Jersey  to  Pennsylvania,  from  Pennsylvania  to  Vir- 
ginia, from  Virginia  to  Kentucky,  from  Kentucky  to 
Indiana,  from  Indiana  to  Illinois.  It  was  the  very 
opposite  of  shiftlessness  that  caused  them  to  move 
on  and  on.  They  were  "balancing  up  their  estab- 
lishment" and  that  was  "undoubtedly  good  busi- 
ness."   Had  the  Lincolns  not  desired  to  "balance  up 


LINCOLN'S  PATERNAL  ANCESTRY  13 

their  establishment"  they  would  have  remained  in 
the  South  and  have  been,  no  doubt,  "the  poor  white 
trash,"  which  they  were  not.  Shiftless  or  not,  no 
other  man  since  time  began  has  ever  been  the  father 
of  such  a  noble  son !  That  honor  belongs  to  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  cannot  be  taken  from  him! 

Had  Thomas  Lincoln  been  the  abject  failure  that 
Lamon  and  other  biographers  picture  him  to  have 
been,  it  is  quite  possible  that  after  the  death  of  his 
wife  he  would  never  have  returned  to  Kentucky — 
to  the  very  region  of  his  shiftless  failures — in  pur- 
suit of  the  hand  of  Sarah  Bush  Johnston,  who  knew 
him  and  knew  him  well,  for  he  had  courted  her  be- 
fore he  married  Nancy  Hanks.  We  have  evidence 
to  show  that  Sarah  Bush,  as  Sarah  Bush  and  as 
Sarah  Bush  Johnston,  thought  well  of  Thomas  Lin- 
coln and  we  know,  too,  that  her  relatives  thought 
well  of  him. 

Mrs.  Dowling,  daughter  of  Dennis  Hanks,  said 
to  Eleanor  Atkinson  in  an  interview  in  her  home  in 
Charleston,  Illinois,  in  January,  1889:  "I'm  just 
tired  of  hearing  Grandfather  Lincoln  (Thomas  Lin- 
coln) abused.  Everybody  runs  him  down.  Father 
never  gave  him  credit  for  what  he  was.  He  made 
a  good  living,  and  I  reckon  he  would  have  got  some- 
thing ahead  if  he  hadn't  been  so  generous.  He  had 
the  old  Virginia  notion  of  hospitality — liked  to  see 
people  sit  up  to  the  table  and  eat  hearty,  and  there 
were  always  plenty  of  his  relations  and  grand- 
mother's willing  to  live  on  him.  Uncle  Abe  got  his 
honesty,  and  his  clean  notions  of  living  and  his  kind 
heart  from  his  father.  I've  heard  Grandmother 
Lincoln  say,  many  a  time,  that  he  was  kind  and 
loving,  and  kept  his  word,  and  always  paid  his  way, 


14  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

and  never  turned  a  dog  from  his  door.    You  couldn't 
say  that  of  every  man,  not  even  today.  .  .  ."S9 

Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  son  Abraham  had  many 
traits  and  characteristics  in  common.  Their  hair 
was  coarse  and  black  and  their  eyes  deep-set.  They 
were  both  excellent  story  tellers.  Neither  com- 
plained of  the  lack  of  physical  comfort;  all  through 
his  life  Abraham  Lincoln  was  indifferent  about  his 
food,  clothing,  and  refinement  of  living.  From  a 
statement  made  by  Dennis  Hanks  to  Mr.  Herndon 
we  know  that  Thomas  Lincoln  loved  his  children. 
By  Abraham  Lincoln's  own  words  we  know  that  he 
did  not  oppose  their  education.  On  the  other  hand 
we  may  feel  quite  safe  in  saying  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln loved,  honored,  and  respected  his  father.  We 
have  no  evidence  that  they  quarreled  in  any  serious 
way.  We  know  that  Abe  stayed  with  his  father 
until  he  reached  his  majority  and  that  he  helped  him 
move  to  his  new  home  in  Illinois. 


CHAPTER  II 

LINCOLN'S  MATERNAL  ANCESTRY 

Nancy  Hanks  His  Mother 

"When  I  was  small  and  could  not  sleep, 

She  used  to  come  to  me, 
And  with  my  cheek  upon  her  hand, 

How  sure  my  rest  would  be. 

For  everything  she  ever  touched 

Of  beautiful  or  fine, 
Their  memories  living  in  her  hands 

Would  warm  that  sleep  of  mine." 
— Anna  Hempstead  Branch. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  set  forth  evi- 
dence to  show  that  Thomas  Lincoln  was  not  the 
lazy,  improvident,  shiftless,  and  ignorant  character 
that  early  biographers  have  pictured  him  to  be,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  he  was  an  industrious,  law- 
abiding  citizen — a  good  workman,  an  excellent  car- 
penter, and  a  farmer  having  in  his  possession  nearly 
800  acres  of  land.  We  have  proved  that  there  was 
good  blood  in  his  veins  and  that  he  was  far  from 
belonging  to  the  "poor  whites"  of  the  South  and 
that  his  father,  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  a  worthy 
pioneer  owning  over  5,500  acres  of  land.  It  is  now 
our  purpose  to  set  forth  the  evidence  pertaining  to 
the  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Nancy  Hanks,  and 
to  endeavor  to  ascertain  what  blood  flowed  in  her 
veins. 

The  genealogy  of  Nancy  Hanks  has  caused  the 
historians  much  trouble.  In  1899  Mrs.  Caroline 
Hanks  Hitchcock  published  her  book,  Nancy  Hanks, 
in  which  she  based  her  conclusion  upon  the  state- 

15 


16  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

ments  of  Mrs.  C.  S.  H.  Vawter  and  Mitchell  Thomp- 
son. She  says  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  born  in  Vir- 
ginia in  February,  1784,  the  daughter  of  Joseph  and 
Nancy  (Shipley)  Hanks.  Joseph  Hanks  moved  with 
his  family  to  Nelson  County,  Kentucky,  where  he 
died  in  1793.  He  left  a  will,  (which  we  have  set 
forth  in  the  appendix) ,  which  Mrs.  Hitchcock  found 
in  the  Courthouse  at  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  in  which 
he  bequeathed  his  horses  to  his  sons  and  his  heifers 
to  his  daughters.  Young  Nancy  Hanks,  soon  after 
the  death  of  her  father,  was  adopted  by  Richard 
Berry  and  his  wife,  Lucy  Shipley  Berry,  who  was 
a  sister  of  Nancy  Shipley  Hanks.  Richard  Berry 
and  his  wife  came  to  Kentucky  from  Virginia  at  the 
same  time  that  Joseph  Hanks  came.  In  the  home 
of  Richard  Berry  in  Beechland,  Kentucky,  Nancy 
Hanks  was  married  to  Thomas  Lincoln,  their  mar- 
riage bond  being  signed  by  Richard  Berry. 

This  sounds  like  a  plausible  explanation  but  a 
serious  difficulty  arises.  Where  is  the  evidence  to 
show  that  the  Nancy  Hanks  mentioned  in  the  will 
of  Joseph  Hanks  is  the  same  Nancy  Hanks  that 
married  Thomas  Lincoln?  Mrs.  Hitchcock  saw  this 
troublesome  question  and  set  to  work  to  answer  it. 
Her  friends  claim  that  up  to  the  present  time  no 
one  has  found  another  Nancy  Hanks  in  Kentucky 
who  was  the  proper  age  to  have  become  the  wife 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  in  1806.  The  Nancy  Hanks  men- 
tioned in  the  will  of  Joseph  Hanks  in  1793  was  then 
nine  years  of  age  and  was  of  marriageable  age  in 
1806.  The  will  of  Joseph  Hanks  recognized  eight 
children — seven  others  besides  Nancy.  Surely  some 
trace  could  be  found  of  them  and  their  descendants 
and  the  latter  should  be  able  to  give  information 


LINCOLN'S  MATERNAL  ANCESTRY  17 

about  Nancy.  Mrs.  Hitchcock  traced  Joseph  to 
Elizabethtown,  where  he  became  a  carpenter  and 
cabinet-maker.  Joseph  married  a  Miss  Mary  Young 
in  Elizabethtown  and  there  several  children  were 
born  to  them.  About  1826  Joseph  Hanks  moved  to 
Illinois  with  his  family,  settling  near  Quincy,  in 
Adams  County.  There  his  children  grew  up  and 
married.  Mrs.  Hitchcock  found  the  children  and  the 
grandchildren  of  Joseph  Hanks  and  received  several 
letters  from  them,  all  of  which  claim  that  Joseph 
and  Nancy  were  brother  and  sister.  So  this  is  the 
substance  of  the  story  of  those  who  believe  Nancy 
Hanks,  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  to  be  a  sister  of 
Joseph  Hanks,  the  carpenter  of  Elizabethtown,  and 
they  console  themselves  that  the  sons  of  Dennis  and 
John  Hanks  in  later  life  worked  out  a  genealogy 
showing  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  the  daughter  of 
Joseph  Hanks. 

But  there  are  two  other  stories  of  the  genealogy 
of  Nancy  Hanks  that  claim  our  attention — first,  the 
generally  accepted  tradition  of  the  Hanks  family, 
which  it  is  claimed  Abraham  Lincoln  believed,  and, 
second,  the  statements  made  by  Dennis  and  John 
Hanks.  According  to  the  first  of  these  there  were 
four  Hanks  sisters — Betsy,  Polly,  Nancy,  and  Lucy, 
daughters  of  Joseph  Hanks  who  died  in  1793.  These 
sisters  married  as  follows:  Betsy  married  Thomas 
Sparrow;  Polly  married  Jesse  Friend;  Nancy  mar- 
ried Levi  Hall;  and  Lucy  married  Henry  Sparrow. 
But  before  Nancy  Hanks  married  Levi  Hall  she  be- 
came the  mother  of  Dennis  Hanks,  and  before  Lucy 
Hanks  married  Henry  Sparrow  she  became  the 
mother  of  Nancy  Hanks,  in  1784.  The  two  illegi- 
timate children  were  not  taken  into  the  homes  of 


18  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

their  mothers'  husbands,  but  were  reared  in  the 
home  of  their  aunt,  Betsy  Hanks,  wife  of  Thomas 
Sparrow. 

On  this  subject  Herndon  says:  "On  the  subject 
of  his  ancestry,  I  only  remember  one  time  when  Mr. 
Lincoln  referred  to  it.  It  was  in  the  fifties  when  he 
and  I  were  driving  to  court  in  Menard  County.  The 
suit  we  were  discussing  touched  upon  the  subject 
of  hereditary  traits.  During  the  ride  he  spoke  of 
his  mother,  dwelling  on  her  characteristics  and  men- 
tioning or  enumerating  what  qualities  he  believed  he 
had  inherited  from  her.  Among  other  things  I  re- 
member he  said  she  was  the  illegitimate  daughter 
of  Lucy  Hanks  and  a  well-bred  Virginia  farmer  or 
planter;  he  argued  that  from  this  last  source  came 
his  power  of  analysis,  his  logic,  his  mental  activity, 
his  ambition,  and  all  the  qualities  that  distinguished 
him  from  the  other  members  and  descendants  of  the 
Hanks  family.  His  theory  was  that,  for  certain 
reasons,  illegitimate  children  are  sometimes  sturdier 
and  brighter  than  those  born  in  lawful  wedlock ;  and 
in  his  case  he  believed  that  his  better  nature  and 
finer  qualities  came  from  this  unknown  broad- 
minded  Virginian.  .  .  ." 

The  early  biographers  of  Lincoln — Lamon,  Hern- 
don, Nicolay  and  Hay — state  that  Nancy  Hanks  was 
the  illegitimate  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks.  In  his 
investigation  of  this  subject,  the  author  has  found 
that  in  Southern  Indiana  it  is  the  general  belief  of 
the  descendants  of  the  men  and  women  who  knew 
Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  that  she  was  the  illegitimate 
daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks. 

The  Hankses  pretended  to  know  nothing  about 
Nancy  Hanks'  being  the  daughter  of  Joseph  and 


LINCOLN'S  MATERNAL  ANCESTRY  19 

Nancy  (Shipley)  Hanks.  Dennis  Hanks  and  his 
cousin,  John  Hanks,  both  declare  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's mother  was  not  a  Hanks  but  a  Sparrow ;  that 
her  father  was  Henry  Sparrow  and  her  mother 
Lucy  (Hanks)  Sparrow.  But  here  lies  the  weakness 
of  this  contention :  Henry  Sparrow  and  Lucy  Hanks 
were  married  April  3,  1791,  according  to  a  certified 
statement  made  by  the  clerk  of  Mercer  County,  Ken- 
tucky. Now  if  Nancy  was  born  the  next  year  after 
this  marriage  she  would  have  been  but  fourteen 
years  of  age  when  she  married  Thomas  Lincoln  in 
i806. 

In  February,  1866,  Dennis  Hanks  wrote  as  fol- 
lows to  Mr.  Herndon  in  answer  to  one  of  his  letters 
concerning  Lincoln's  mother: 

"Hir  Name  was  Nancy  Sparrow;  hir  fathers 
Name  was  Henry  Sparrow,  hir  Mother  was  Lucy 
Sparrow,  hir  Madin  name  was  Hanks,  sister  to  my 
Mother.    2nd,  You  say  why  was  she  called  Hanks? 

"All  I  can  say  is  this  She  was  Deep  in  Stalk  of 
the  Hanks  family.  Calling  her  Hanks  probily  is  My 
fait.  I  allways  told  hir  She  Looked  More  Like  the 
Hankses  than  Sparrows.  I  think  this  is  the  way  if 
you  call  hir  Hanks  you  Make  hir  a  Base-born  Child 
which  is  not  trew."1 

Rev.  Mr.  Barton  feels  sure  that  Nancy  Hanks  is 
an  illegitimate  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks.  He  ad- 
vances this  argument:  If  Lucy  Hanks  was  the 
daughter  of  Joseph  Hanks,  why  was  she  not  men- 
tioned in  his  will?  Lucy  Hanks  was  the  oldest 
daughter'  of  Joseph  Hanks  and  was  born  in  Virginia 
about  1765.  When  she  was  nineteen  years  of  age 
she  gave  birth  to  a  child  whom  she  called  Nancy. 
The  father  of  the  child  is  unknown,  but  is  thought 


20  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

to  have  been  a  well-bred  Virginia  planter.  Lucy 
Hanks  and  her  child  lived  in  the  home  of  her  father 
and  mother  and  also  lived  with  them  for  a  while 
after  they  moved  to  Kentucky.  But  then  she  left 
her  father's  home  and  we  know  that  she  continued 
her  wayward  life.  The  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the 
records  of  the  Mercer  County  Court  for  November 
24,  1789.  Upon  that  date  a  grand  jury  indicted 
Lucy  Hanks  for  fornication.  In  the  May  term  of 
the  Court,  1790,  we  read  from  the  record  that  that 
suit  against  Lucy  Hanks  was  ordered  discontinued. 
The  reason  for  this  was  that  on  April  26,  1790, 
Henry  Sparrow  gave  bond  for  a  license  to  marry 
Lucy  Hanks.  The  marriage  took  place  April  3, 
1791.2 

Rev.  Mr.  Louis  A.  Warren  has  recently  offered 
some  suggestions  relative  to  the  mother  of  Nancy 
Hanks.  In  studying  the  certificate  of  Lucy  Hanks, 
in  which  she  gave  her  consent  to  Henry  Sparrow  to 
take  out  a  license  for  their  marriage,  he  discovered, 
by  the  use  of  a  heavy  reading  glass,  the  word 
"widoy"  just  above  the  signature  of  Lucy  Hanks. 
The  inference  is  that  "widoy"  meant  "widow".  In 
this  case  Lucy  Hanks  was  a  widow  and  Hanks  was 
not  her  maiden  name.3  Rev.  Mr.  Warren  also  points 
out  that  the  census  of  1790  showed  there  were 
eleven  white  people  in  the  family  of  Joseph  Hanks 
in  Virginia  in  1782.  His  Kentucky  will  in  1793 
accounts  for  only  ten  and  Rev.  Mr.  Warren  sug- 
gests this  missing  one  may  have  been  the  grand- 
father of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  husband  of  Lucy 
Shipley  Hanks.4 

That  President  Lincoln  knew  that  his  mother, 
Nancy  Hanks,  was  the  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks  and 


LINCOLN'S  MATERNAL  ANCESTRY  21 

the  granddaughter  of  Joseph  Hanks  is  evident  from 
his  statement  about  John  Hanks  in  which  he  says: 
"He  is  the  same  John  Hanks  who  now  engineers  the 
'rail  enterprise/  at  Decatur,  and  is  the  first  cousin 
of  Abraham's  mother."  John  Hanks  was  the  son 
of  William  Hanks  and  the  grandson  of  Joseph 
Hanks.  Had  Nancy  Hanks,  the  President's  mother, 
been  the  daughter  instead  of  the  granddaughter  of 
Joseph  Hanks,  she  would  have  been  an  aunt  and  not 
a  first  cousin  of  John  Hanks.  These  statements 
seem  to  bear  out  the  statement  that  Lincoln  knew 
that  his  mother  was  an  illegitimate  daughter  of 
Lucy  Hanks,  as  he  told  Herndon  during  that  buggy 
ride  in  the  1850's,  unless  we  can  accept  Rev.  Mr. 
Warren's  recent  discovery  that  seems  to  show  that 
Lucy  Hanks  was  a  widow,  whose  husband  might 
have  been  the  son  of  Joseph  Hanks.  The  Hankses 
were  all  good  people  without  vicious  blood,  and  we 
may  therefore  reach  the  conclusion  that  good  blood 
came  to  Abraham  Lincoln  through  the  maternal 
side  of  his  house  as  well  as  through  the  paternal  side. 
Rev.  Mr.  Barton  says  that  Nancy  Hanks  grew 
into  a  sweet  and  lovable  girl  of  industry,  intelligence, 
and  virtue.5  Herndon  says:  "At  the  time  of  her 
marriage  to  Thomas  Lincoln,  Nancy  was  in  her 
twenty-third  year.  She  was  above  the  ordinary 
height  in  stature,  weighed  about  130  pounds,  was 
slenderly  built,  and  had  much  the  appearance  of  one 
inclined  to  consumption.  Her  skin  was  dark;  hair 
dark  brown;  eyes  gray  and  small;  forehead  prom- 
inent; face  sharp  and  angular,  with  a  marked  ex- 
pression for  melancholy  which  fixed  itself  in  the 
memory  of  all  who  ever  saw  or  knew  her.    Though 


22  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

her  life  was  clouded  by  a  spirit  of  sadness,  she  was 
in  disposition  amiable  and  generally  cheerful.  .  .  ,"6 
And  Dennis  Hanks  says  of  her  in  his  peculiar  way : 
"She  was  purty  as  a  pictur  an'  smart  as  you'd  find 
'em  anywhere "7 

A  Mother's  Influence  on  Lincoln 

Many  years  ago  a  wise  man  said :  "Good  children 
are  apt  to  have  good  mothers."  Abraham  Lincoln 
had  a  good  mother,  a  pure,  devout  Christian  woman 
— one  who  literally  followed  the  Golden  Rule  all  her 
life.  And  Abraham  Lincoln  had  a  good  stepmother. 
Sally  Bush  Lincoln  was  a  Christian  woman  who 
builded  upon  the  Christian  ideals  of  Nancy  Hanks — 
a  worthy  successor  in  every  way.  Their  goodness 
and  godliness  they  passed  on  to  Abraham  Lincoln, 
who  all  through  his  life  was  guided  by  them.  Their 
high  ideals  and  acute  sense  of  right  and  wrong  took 
deep  root  in  young  Lincoln  at  an  early  age  and  re- 
mained with  him  forever.  Dennis  Hanks,  who  lived 
with  the  Lincolns,  had  a  chance  to  know  Nancy  Lin- 
coln at  close  range.  He  said  of  her :  "If  ever  there 
was  a  good  woman  on  earth,  she  was  one, — a  true 
Christian  of  the  Baptist  Church."    . 

In  1851  Mr.  Lincoln,  speaking  of  his  mother  to 
his  law  partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  said  that  "she  was 
highly  intellectual  by  nature,  had  a  strong  memory, 
acute  judgment,  and  was  cool  and  heroic."8  Well 
might  Lincoln  have  said  this  of  his  mother,  for  he 
inherited  from  her  his  quick  perception,  his  clear 
reasoning  powers,  and  his  deep  intellect. 

When  Lincoln  was  President,  the  death  of  his 
son  Willie  caused  a  great  sadness  to  come  over 
his  soul.     In  that  dark  hour  of  trouble  his  mind 


LINCOLN'S  MATERNAL  ANCESTRY  23 

went  back  to  his  mother  sleeping  in  the  hills  of  In- 
diana, that  mother  who  had  read  the  Bible  to  him 
at  her  knee  and  who  had  admonished  him  with  her 
dying  words  to  be  kind  to  his  sister  and  his  father. 
On  that  occasion  the  great  heart  poured  forth:  "I 
remember  her  prayers  and  they  have  always  fol- 
lowed me.    They  have  clung  to  me  all  my  life."9 

That  Sarah  Bush  Lincoln  had  great  influence 
upon  moulding  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
no  one  can  deny.  Some  authors  have  gone  so  far  as 
to  hold  to  the  belief  that  Lincoln  himself  had  in 
mind  his  stepmother  and  not  his  mother  when  he 
referred  to  her  as  his  "angel  mother/'10  The  author, 
however,  is  inclined  to  the  view  that  Lincoln  meant 
his  own  mother.  Considerable  light  is  thrown  on 
this  question  by  one  of  Lincoln's  old  acquaintances, 
Governor  William  Pickering,  who  said :  "Once  when 
Lincoln  referred  to  the  fact  that  he  owed  much  to 
his  mother,  I  asked,  'Which  mother,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
your  own  or  your  stepmother?'  To  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln replied, — 'Don't  ask  me  that  question,  for  I 
mean  both,  as  it  was  mother  all  my  life,  except  that 
desolate  period  between  the  time  mother  died  and 
father  brought  mother  into  the  home  again.  Both 
were  as  one  mother.    Hence  I  simply  say,  mother.'  "" 

In  the  year  1818  the  milk  sickness  spread  over 
Southern  Indiana  and  carried  off  the  people  at  an 
alarming  rate.  Nancy  Lincoln  was  a  victim.  A 
member  of  the  household  said:  "She  struggled  on, 
day  by  day,  a  good  Christian  woman,  and  died  on 
the  seventh  day  after  she  had  taken  sick.  .  .  .  The 
mother  knew  she  was  going  to  die,  and  called  the 
children  to  her  bedside.12  'I  am  going  away  from 
you,  Abraham,'  she  said,  'and  shall  not  return.     I 


24  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

know  that  you  will  be  a  good  boy;  that  you  will  be 
kind  to  Sarah  and  your  father.  I  want  you  to  live 
as  I  have  taught  you  and  to  love  your  Heavenly 
Father  and  keep  his  Commandments.'  "13  History 
attests  the  fact  that  Abraham  never  failed  to  ask 
God  to  give  him  strength  to  weather  the  crises  of 
life  when  they  came.  He  never  forgot  his  mother's 
dying  words  and  he  lived  as  she  had  taught  him. 

Thomas  Lincoln  made  a  coffin  for  his  wife,  whip- 
sawing  the  planks  for  it  out  of  a  log  that  was  un- 
used in  the  building  of  their  cabin.  A  broken- 
hearted son  whittled  with  his  jackknife  the  pins 
that  were  used  to  fasten  the  lumber  together  for  the 
last  rude  earthly  home  his  mother  was  to  know. 
There  were  no  funeral  services  held  for  Nancy  Lin- 
coln. Kind  neighbors  came  and  laid  her  to  rest. 
But  Abraham,  who  was  ten  years  of  age  at  the  death 
of  his  mother,  longed  to  have  a  minister  come  and 
preach  a  sermon  over  her  grave.  Tradition  has  it 
that  he  wrote  to  Parson  David  Elkin,  whom  the  Lin- 
colns  probably  knew  in  Kentucky,  to  come  and  hold 
the  funeral  services.  The  tradition  of  the  Elkin 
family  is  that  the  good  parson  did  preach  the  funeral 
sermon  of  Nancy  Lincoln  when  he  was  on  a  visit  to 
his  two  sons,  Hogen  and  Warren  Elkin,  who  lived 
in  Indiana. 

In  closing  our  discussion  of  the  father  and  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  let  us  quote  from  an 
eminent  sociologist :  "We  are  the  result  of  those  so- 
cial forces  which  make  us  what  we  are.  In  the  first 
three  years  of  life  a  child  is  an  aristocrat  or  he 
never  becomes  one.  He  watches  his  parents  meet 
the  crises  and  routines  of  the  day.  If  the  father 
is  cheap  or  mean  or  discourteous,  the  child  assumes 


LINCOLN'S  MATERNAL  ANCESTRY  25 

the  outside  world  is  the  same.  The  mother  stands 
as  interpreter  of  life's  mysteries,  tragedies,  pains, 
the  revelation  of  the  unknown.  If  she  does  it  with 
beauty  and  nobility,  the  child  will  go  into  life  to 
meet  its  issues  accordingly.  If  the  mother  fails  the 
child  goes  into  life  handicapped."14  Surely  Thomas 
Lincoln  was  not  "cheap  or  mean  or  discourteous." 
Surely  Nancy  Lincoln  did  not  fail. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  STORIES  OF  THE  ILLEGITIMACY 
OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

The  Story  of  Abraham  Enlow  of 
Hardin  County,  Kentucky 

"The  saddest  among  kings  of  earth, 
Bowed  with  a  galling  crown,  this  man 
Met  rancor  with  a  cryptic  mirth, 
Laconic — and  Olympian." 

— Edwin  Arlington  Robinson. 

In  the  two  preceding  chapters  we  have  shown 
that  good  blood  came  into  the  veins  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  from  paternal  and  maternal  ancestry.  It 
is  now  our  purpose  to  show  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
is  the  son  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  thus  setting  aside  the 
stories  that  deny  his  legitimacy.  In  doing  this  we 
shall  follow  rather  closely  the  material  gathered  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Barton  in  his  Paternity  of  Lincoln,  pub- 
lished by  the  George  H.  Doran  Co.,  New  York,  1920, 
after  which  we  shall  check  up  on  the  findings  of  this 
writer  by  our  own  investigations. 

For  many  years  past  a  story  has  been  circulated 
in  and  about  Hodgenville,  Kentucky,  that  Abraham 
Enlow,  who  lived  in  that  part  of  Hardin  County 
which  is  now  La  Rue,  was  the  father  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Even  today  there  are  those  who  still  re- 
peat the  story  although  its  falsity  has  been  proved 
beyond  question.  It  is  true  that  Abraham  Enlow 
lived  not  far  from  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
born, — only  about  two  miles  distant  in  fact,  but  at 
the  time  of  the  conception  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  on 

26 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY  27 

or  about  May  8,  1808,  Abraham  Enlow  did  not  live 
in  the  Lincoln  neighborhood,  but  eight  miles  away, 
for  Thomas  and  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  were  then 
living,  or  at  least  were  living  shortly  afterwards,  on 
the  farm  of  George  Brownfield.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  wife  did  not  leave 
their  home  in  Elizabethtown  until  June,  1808.  In 
that  case  Abraham  Lincoln  was  conceived  at  Eliza- 
bethtown, many  miles  from  the  home  of  Abraham 
Enlow.  In  either  case  we  are  as  sure  as  it  is  pos- 
sible to  be  sure  that  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  had  never 
seen  Abraham  Enlow  before  the  unborn  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  began. 

The  Enlow  story  was  given  color  by  a  fight, 
recorded  by  Lamon,  that  was  supposed  to  have  taken 
place  between  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Abraham  Enlow, 
as  a  result  of  which  the  former  was  glad  to  escape 
from  Kentucky  and  move  to  Indiana.1  Had  Thomas 
Lincoln  bitten  off  the  nose  of  Abraham  Enlow,  as 
Lamon  states,  he  displayed  good  judgment  in  hurry- 
ing away  across  the  Ohio  River.  But  Thomas  Lin- 
coln had  no  cause  to  leave  Kentucky  for  that  reason, 
for  he  never  had  a  fight  with  Abraham  Enlow.  Rev. 
Mr.  Barton  has  made  a  careful  study  and  investiga- 
tion of  this  matter  and  can  find  no  trace  of  a  fight 
between  Lincoln  and  Enlow  but  that  they  were  good 
friends.  The  author  has  also  investigated  this  story 
very  carefully  by  many  interviews  and  much  cor- 
respondence, but  has  found  no  one  to  substantiate  it 
as  Lamon  told  it.  Lamon  was  no  student  or  research 
scholar  and  made  but  little  effort  to  get  at  the  truth, 
and  as  a  result  of  his  unscholarly  methods  his  book 
has  done  a  great  injustice  to  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
his  family. 


28  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

But  there  is  evidence  that  proves  conclusively 
that  Abraham  Enlow  could  not  have  been  the  father 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Enlow  was  born  January  26, 
1793,  so  that  at  the  time  of  the  conception  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  Enlow  was  a  boy  of  fifteen.  This  age 
and  the  fact  that  the  Enlows  and  Lincolns  were  far 
separated  in  a  rough  untraveled  country  at  the  time 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  conceived  make  it  simply 
absurd  for  anyone  to  believe  that  Abraham  Enlow 
was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  Story  of  George  Brownfield 

Since  those  people  of  Hodgenville,  who  had  given 
the  Enlow  story  any  real  thought,  knew  that  Abra- 
ham Enlow  could  not  have  been  the  father  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  another  father,  other  than  Abraham 
Enlow,  had  to  be  found  if  the  story  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  illegitimate  birth  was  to  live.  So  the  story 
was  told  in  and  around  Hodgenville  that  George 
Brownfield  was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

This  story  gained  currency  because  in  the  latter 
part  of  May  or  in  the  early  part  of  June,  1808, 
Thomas  Lincoln  moved  with  his  wife  and  little 
daughter,  Sarah,  from  their  home  in  Elizabethtown 
to  the  farm  of  George  Brownfield.  There  Lincoln 
lived  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1808. 
However,  there  is  not  a  scrap  of  evidence  to  show 
that  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  was  untrue  to  her  hus- 
band by  forming  an  adulterous  association  with 
George  Brownfield  almost  immediately  upon  moving 
to  his  farm.  The  story  was  not  told  until  a  half 
century  afterwards  and  then  only  when  it  was  un- 
questionably known  that  the  Abraham  Enlow  story 
could  not  have  been  true. 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY  29 

The  Story  of  Abraham  Inlow  of 
Bourbon  County,  Kentucky 

Perhaps  the  most  widespread  of  all  the  numer- 
ous stories  about  the  illegitimate  birth  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  the  one  that  asserts  that  he  is  the  son  of 
a  poor  girl  by  the  name  of  Hornback  or  Hanks  and 
of  Abraham  Inlow,  a  miller,  who  lived  on  the  border 
between  Bourbon  and  Clark  Counties  in  Kentucky. 
The  story  is  that  for  a  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars 
in  money  and  a  pair  of  horses  and  a  wagon  Thomas 
Lincoln  married  the  woman  and  assumed  the  pater- 
nity of  the  boy.  Some  accounts  of  the  story  say  that 
the  child  was  yet  unborn  while  others  say  he  was 
large  enough  to  walk  and  that  he  sat  between  Lin- 
coln and  Nancy  as  they  drove  away  in  their  wagon. 
One  form  of  the  story  says  that  Rev.  Jesse  Head, 
who  married  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks, 
said  that  the  boy  was  old  enough  to  run  around  at 
the  time  of  the  marriage.  But  what  a  lie ! — for  Rev. 
Jesse  Head  died  in  1842,  over  twenty  years  before 
this  story  was  ever  told! 

We  know  for  the  following  reason  that  this 
whole  story  is  untrue:  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks  were  married  June  12,  1806 ;  on  February  10, 
1807,  at  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  their  first  child, 
not  a  son,  but  a  daughter,  named  Sarah,  was  born 
to  them.  Abraham  was  their  second  child,  born 
February  12,  1809.  So  the  story  that  the  boy  rode 
away  with  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  falls.  And 
the  story  that  he  was  yet  unborn  when  Thomas  Lin- 
coln took  Nancy  away  falls  also,  for  the  first  child 
born  to  them  was  not  a  boy  but  a  girl. 


30  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

The  Story  of  Abraham  Enlow  of 
Elizabethtown,  Kentucky 

Besides  the  story  of  Abraham  Enlow  of  Hardin 
County  and  Abraham  Inlow  of  Bourbon  County,  a 
third  story  is  told  to  the  effect  that  Abraham  Enlow 
of  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  was  the  father  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  Abraham  Enlow  of  Elizabethtown, 
like  Abraham  Inlow  of  Bourbon  County,  was  said 
to  be  a  miller,  and  operated  a  large  grist  mill  at  the 
edge  of  town.  The  records  of  Hardin  County  do 
not  show  that  Abraham  Enlow  ever  owned  a  grist 
mill  in  Elizabethtown  and  there  is  no  record  that 
the  Enlows  ever  lived  in  that  part  of  the  county  that 
is  now  Hardin  County,  before  the  time  of  the  birth 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  Story  of  Abraham  Enloe  of  North  Carolina 

There  is  still  a  fourth  Abraham  Enloe  who  is 
said  to  have  been  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln — 
Abraham  Enloe  of  North  Carolina.  On  September 
17,  1893,  the  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  Observer 
printed  the  North  Carolina  story.  Six  years  later, 
1899,  James  H.  Cathey,  State  Senator  from  a  West- 
ern North  Carolina  District,  published  a  book,  Truth 
Is  Stranger  than  Fiction,  in  which  he  set  forth  at 
great  length  the  North  Carolina  story.  A  little  later 
he  issued  an  enlarged  edition — The  Genesis  of  Lin- 
coln. 

The  following  taken  from  Mr.  Cathey's  book  sets 
forth  the  story  briefly:  "The  following  tradition  is 
more  than  ninety  years  old.  Its  center  of  authority 
is  Swain  and  neighboring  counties  of  Western  North 
Carolina.  Some  time  in  the  early  years  of  the  cen- 
tury, variously  given  1803,  1805,  1806,  and  1808, 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY  31 

there  was  living  in  the  family  of  Abraham  Enloe 
of  Ocona  Lufta,  North  Carolina,  a  young  woman 
whose  name  was  Nancy  Hanks.  This  young  woman 
remained  in  the  household,  faring  as  one  of  the  fam- 
ily until,  it  becoming  apparent  that  she  was  in  a 
state  of  increase,  and  there  appearing  signs  of  the 
approach  of  domestic  infelicity,  she  was  quietly  re- 
moved, at  the  instance  of  Abraham  Enloe,  to  Ken- 
tucky. This  is  the  most  commonly  accepted  version 
of  the  event."2 

But  proved  dates  again  help  us  to  show  how  false 
the  story  is.  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks 
were  married  June  12,  1806.  The  next  year  a 
daughter  was  born  to  them  at  Elizabethtown,  Ken- 
tucky. Two  years  later  a  son,  Abraham,  was  born 
to  them.  Now  if  Abraham  Enloe  of  North  Caro- 
lina was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  it  could  not 
be  on  Enloe's  part  a  case  of  seduction  as  related  by 
Mr.  Cathey  and  by  all  the  men  who  gave  statements 
in  his  book,  but  it  must  have  been  a  case  of  adultery 
after  Nancy  Hanks  had  become  the  wife  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  after  their  daughter  Sarah  was  born. 
And  again  the  question  of  location  arises  to  prove 
the  story  false.  Either  Abraham  Enloe  must  have 
visited  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  in  her  Kentucky  home 
or  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  must  have  made  a  visit  to 
Mr.  Enloe.  We  have  no  evidence  that  these  visits 
ever  took  place  and  no  one  has  ever  intimated  that 
they  did.  On  the  contrary  we  know  the  whereabouts 
of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  from  the  time  of  her  mar- 
riage to  Thomas  Lincoln  in  Kentucky  to  the  time 
of  her  death  in  Indiana.  She  never  saw  Abraham 
Enloe  of  North  Carolina  after  her  marriage  to 
Thomas  Lincoln. 


32  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

In  1925  J.  C.  Coggins,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  member  of 
the  Historical  Society  of  North  Carolina,  published 
a  little  volume,  Abraham  Lincoln  a  North  Carolinian, 
in  which  he  attempts  to  show  that  Abraham  Enloe 
was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  quotes  the 
statements  of  the  witnesses  of  Mr.  Cathey  who  stated 
that  they  had  heard  the  story  that  Abraham  Enloe 
was  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  believed  it. 
Dr.  Coggins  also  sets  forth  a  long  statement  from 
Berry  H.  Melton,  his  great-uncle,  to  the  effect  that 
Enloe  was  Lincoln's  father.  In  his  statements  to 
Dr.  Coggins,  Mr.  Melton  said:  "Uncle  Abraham 
hired  Felix  Walker,  the  first  Congressman  from  this 
district  ...  to  take  her  and  the  child,  which  was 
named  Abraham,  across  the  mountains  on  horseback 
to  Kentucky,  and  he  was  gone  on  this  trip  two  or 
three  weeks." 

Now  if  Abraham  Enloe  of  North  Carolina  ever 
had  Felix  Walker  or  any  one  else  to  take  Nancy 
Hanks  and  her  child  out  of  the  country  to  Kentucky, 
that  person  did  not  carry  in  his  arms  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. The  first  child  born  to  Nancy  Hanks  was  not 
a  boy  but  a  girl — Sarah  Lincoln.  This  statement 
alone  is  enough  to  show  conclusively  the  absurdity 
of  all  the  stories  about  the  illegitimate  birth  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  set  forth  in  the  statements  of 
Mr.  Cathey's  witnesses,  copied  by  Dr.  Coggins,  for 
they  all  say  that  Nancy  Hanks  was  sent  away  from 
the  Enloe  home  in  North  Carolina  because  Enloe 
was  the  father  of  her  child,  a  son,  who  later  became 
known  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  So  the  fourth  Enlow 
story  is  proved  false.  Abraham  Enloe  of  North 
Carolina  is  not  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY  33 

The  Story  of  Martin  D.  Hardin  of  Kentucky 

A  story  has  been  circulated  in  Washington 
County,  Kentucky,  to  the  effect  that  Martin  D.  Har- 
din is  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  was  said 
that  Mr.  Hardin  visited  Nancy  Hanks,  who  was  liv- 
ing in  the  home  of  Richard  Berry,  while  he  was  on 
his  way  to  Frankfort  to  attend  the  Kentucky  Legis- 
lature of  which  he  was  a  member.  As  a  result  of 
the  visit  there  was  born  to  Nancy  Hanks  a  son  who 
later  became  known  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  But  Mr. 
Hardin  did  not  visit  Nancy  Hanks  while  he  was  on 
his  way  to  attend  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  for  he 
was  never  a  member  of  that  body.  And  further- 
more he  did  not  visit  Nancy  Hanks  in  the  home  of 
Richard  Berry,  for  at  the  time  of  the  alleged  visit 
Nancy  Hanks  was  no  longer  there  but  was  the  wife 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  was  living  in  a  direction 
opposite  to  that  which  Mr.  Hardin  ever  had  occasion 
to  travel.  Like  the  other  stories  about  Lincoln's 
illegitimate  birth  it  was  not  started  at  the  time  of 
his  birth,  nor  shortly  afterwards,  but  over  two  gen- 
erations later.  Since  there  is  not  one  bit  of  evi- 
dence to  support  the  Hardin  story,  we  may  justify 
the  claim  that  there  is  no  truth  whatsoever  in  it. 

The  Story  of  Patrick  Henry  of  Virginia 

In  different  parts  of  Kentucky  and  at  various 
times  a  story  was  told  that  Patrick  Henry  is  the 
father  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Again  dates  interfere 
most  seriously  with  the  truth  of  this  story.  Pat- 
rick Henry  was  born  in  1736  and  died  in  1799. 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  1809 ;  therefore  Pat- 
rick Henry  had  been  dead  about  ten  years  before 
the  birth  of  a  son  whom  idle  gossip  assigns  to  him. 


34  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

The  Story  of  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall's 
Son  and  Adopted  Son,  Andrew 

In  1899  Mrs.  Lucinda  Joan  Boyd  sought  to  prove 
the  illegitimate  birth  of  both  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
his  mother,  Nancy  Hanks.  To  this  end  she  pub- 
lished a  book — The  Sorrows  of  Nancy. 

The  following  is  part  of  one  of  the  affidavits  that 
Mrs.  Boyd  presents ;  it  is  a  part  of  her  own  affidavit 
which  includes  statements  made  by  her  father: 
".  .  .  The  grandmother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
called  by  the  several  names  of  Lucy  Hanks,  Horn- 
back,  or  Sparrow.  Nancy,  Lincoln's  mother,  was 
the  child  of  Lucy  Hanks,  Hornback,  or  Sparrow,  and 
a  son  of  Judge  John  Marshall  of  Virginia.  .  .  . 
Nancy's  father — son  of  Judge  Marshall — was  killed 
in  'Border  Warfare.'  Lincoln's  father  was  the 
adopted  son  (whether  by  law  or  not,  I  do  not  know,) 
of  the  same  Judge  Marshall  of  Virginia,  mentioned 
above,  and  was  the  son  of  an  Englishman,  who 
fought  and  was  killed  in  the  same  battle  in  which 
the  said  Nancy's  father  perished.  .  .  ."3 

That  part  of  the  affidavit  that  says  that  Nancy's 
father,  the  son  of  Judge  Marshall,  was  killed  in  bor- 
der warfare  is  the  purest  kind  of  myth.  Chief  Jus- 
tice Marshall  had  five  sons,  and  history  shows  that 
none  of  them  died  in  battle,  but  that  each  died  in 
his  own  home.  History  also  shows  that  John  Mar- 
shall had  no  adopted  son.  His  nephew,  Martin 
Pickett  Marshall,  did  live  with  him  for  a  little  while, 
but  since  he  was  born  eleven  years  after  Nancy 
Hanks,  we  may  feel  quite  safe  in  saying  that  he  was 
not  her  father. 

Chief  Justice  Marshall's  sons  are  Thomas  Mar- 
shall, born  1784,  died  1835 ;  Jacquelin  Ambler  Mar- 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY  35 

shall,  born  1787,  died  1852;  John  Marshall,  born 
1798,  died  1833 ;  James  Keith  Marshall,  born  1800, 
died  1862 ;  Edward  Carrington  Marshall,  born  1805, 
died  1872.  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  was  born  in  1784.  Certainly  Nancy  Hanks 
was  not  the  daughter  of  any  of  the  sons  of  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  as  she  was  a  year  older  than  the 
oldest  of  them  and  was  twenty-two  years  old  when 
the  youngest  son  was  born.  The  next  year  after  the 
birth  of  John  Marshall's  youngest  son,  Nancy  Hanks 
became  the  wife  of  Thomas  Lincoln  in  Kentucky. 
There  is  absolutely  nothing  of  merit  in  Mrs.  Boyd's 
The  Sorrows  of  Nancy,  although  the  story  as  told 
by  her  has  been  widely  circulated  in  Bourbon 
County,  Kentucky. 

The  Story  of  John  C.  Calhoun  of 
South  Carolina 

Mr.  D.  J.  Knotts  of  South  Carolina  has  set  forth 
the  theory  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  son  of 
John  C.  Calhoun,  the  great  statesman  of  the  South. 
Mr.  Knotts  published  his  story  in  four  articles  in 
The  State,  a  newspaper  of  Columbia,  South  Caro- 
lina. According  to  the  story,  John  C.  Calhoun  had 
been  studying  law  at  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  and 
returned  to  South  Carolina  in  1807  where  he  began 
to  practice  law  in  Abbeville.  He  rode  the  circuit  as 
was  common  in  those  days.  He  put  up  at  a  tavern 
kept  by  Ann  Hanks,  the  widow  of  Luke  Hanks. 
There  he  met  a  young  girl,  Nancy  Hanks.  Many 
years  later  Calhoun's  friends  told  a  story  that  Cal- 
houn had  one  great  regret  of  his  life,  the  seduction 
of  Nancy  Hanks. 

Now  as  to  the  facts  in  the  case.    John  C.  Calhoun 


36  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

did  study  law  in  Litchfield,  Connecticut.  He  did  re- 
turn to  South  Carolina  and  began  to  practice  law  in 
1807.  He  may  have  put  up  at  a  tavern  kept  by  Ann 
Hanks.  He  may  have  met  a  Nancy  Hanks  there, 
for  there  was  a  Nancy  Hanks,  daughter  of  Luke  and 
Ann  Hanks.  But  this  was  not  the  Nancy  Hanks 
who  was  the  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  for  Nancy 
Hanks,  daughter  of  Luke  and  Ann  Hanks,  never 
married  Thomas  Lincoln,  but  a  man  whose  name 
was  South.  At  the  time  of  John  C.  Calhoun's  return 
from  his  study  of  law  to  his  native  state,  Nancy 
Hanks,  mother  of  President  Lincoln,  was  the  wife 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  in  far  away  Kentucky,  and  was 
the  mother  of  a  little  girl  named  Sarah.  So  another 
story  falls  flat  on  account  of  the  consideration  of 
time  and  place.  No  doubt  the  story  originated  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  there  was  more  than  one 
Nancy  Hanks. 

Results  of  Recent  Investigations 

In  1865  William  H.  Herndon  visited  Kentucky  in 
quest  of  material  on  Lincoln.  There  he  encountered 
story  after  story  about  the  illegitimacy  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  proved  many  of  these  stories  false  at 
the  time.  Later  Mr.  Weik  followed  Mr.  Herndon  to 
Kentucky  and  found  the  stories  still  in  circulation. 
He,  too,  proved  their  falsity.  A  short  time  ago  Dr. 
William  E.  Barton  made  a  thorough  investigation  of 
these  stories  which  were  still  in  circulation  and 
showed  how  false  they  were  in  his  most  excellent 
book,  The  Paternity  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  author  wished  to  check  up  on  the  work  of 
these  investigators  and  made  elaborate  plans  for 
doing    so.      Personal    visits    were    made    to    those 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY  37 

counties  in  Kentucky  where  the  stories  were  circu- 
lated and  hundreds  of  men  and  women  interviewed. 
Nowhere  did  the  author  find  any  evidence  that  the 
stories  were  ever  heard  by  anyone  prior  to  the  time 
Lincoln  became  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The 
Enlow  story  is  still  in  circulation  in  La  Rue  County 
and  especially  in  and  around  Hodgenville.  Here, 
too,  was  found  the  Brownfield  story.  In  Bourbon 
County  many  people  were  found  who  had  heard 
the  Inlow  story.  Traces  of  the  Enlow  story  were 
also  found  in  Elizabethtown  in  Hardin  County.  In 
and  around  Springfield,  county  seat  of  Washington 
County,  the  author  found  some  people  who  had 
heard  the  Hardin  story. 

Not  content  with  the  efforts  made  by  personal 
visitation,  the  author  prepared  the  following  ques- 
tionnaire which  he  sent  to  taxpayers  of  Bourbon, 
La  Rue,  Hardin,  and  Washington  Counties  in  Ken- 
tucky, to  Swain  County,  North  Carolina,  and  to 
Abbeville  and  Anderson  Counties,  South  Carolina. 

1.  Your  name 

2.  Your  age 

3.  Your  occupation  State  County  Town  Town- 
ship 

4.  Your  postoffice  address 

5.  How  long  have  you  lived  at  your  present  ad- 
dress ? 

6.  Have  you  ever  heard  that  Nancy  Hanks, 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  an  illegitimate 
child?     Yes     No 

7.  Is  this  story  about  Nancy  Hanks  pretty  gen- 
erally told  in  your  neighborhood  at  present? 

Yes     No 


38  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

8.  Is  it  pretty  generally  believed  in  your  neigh- 
borhood ?     Yes     No 

9.  Have  you  ever  heard  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  an  illegitimate  child?     Yes     No 

10.  About  what  year  did  your  first  hear  the 
story  about  Abraham  Lincoln? 

11.  About  when  did  you  last  hear  this  story? 

12.  Is  the  story  about  Lincoln  pretty  generally 
told  in  your  neighborhood  at  present?     Yes     No 

13.  Is  it  pretty  generally  believed  in  your 
neighborhood  ?     Yes     No 

14.  Have  you  ever  heard  of  anyone  who  be- 
fore 1860  ever  heard  of  this  story  about  Abraham 
Lincoln?    Yes     No 

15.  If  you  have  heard  the  story  that  Lincoln 
was  an  illegitimate  child,  will  you  write  it  briefly 
as  you  have  heard  it,  on  the  enclosed  sheet  of  paper? 

Some  two  thousand  questionnaires  were  sent  out 
to  the  seven  counties  in  the  three  states — the  scenes 
of  the  stories  of  the  illegitimacy  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. Replies  from  1116  taxpayers — men  and  wo- 
men— were  received.  The  following  is  a  tabulation 
of  the  answers. 

The  answers  to  question  number  five  ranged 
from  one  year  to  forty-five  years.  It  is  quite  notice- 
able, from  a  study  of  the  answers,  especially  in  the 
Kentucky  Counties,  that  a  considerable  number  of 
those  who  had  not  lived  at  their  present  addresses 
for  any  great  length  of  time  answered  "No"  to  the 
questions.  The  inference  would  be  that  these  people 
had  moved  from  other  localities  of  Kentucky  or  from 
other  states  where  the  stories  about  the  illegitimacy 
of  Nancy  Hanks  and  Abraham  Lincoln  had  never 


STORIES  OF  LINCOLN'S  ILLEGITIMACY 


39 


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40  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

circulated.  This  would  have  a  tendency  to  localize 
the  stories.  On  the  other  hand  the  "old  residenters" 
invariably  answered  "Yes"  to  the  questions,  which 
would  go  to  show  that  the  stories  had  circulated  in 
the  four  Kentucky  counties  for  a  number  of  years. 
The  answers  to  question  ten  ranged  from  1865  to 
1922.  The  answers  to  the  eleventh  question  clearly 
show  that  the  stories  have  not  been  repeated  very 
much  during  the  past  few  years.  The  answers  to 
questions  seven  and  twelve  also  show  that  the  stories 
are  dying  out.  A  very  significant  thing  is  that  of 
the  658  men  and  women  who  had  heard  that  Lincoln 
was  an  illegitimate  child  only  fourteen  wrote  out 
the  story  that  they  had  heard,  as  requested  in  ques- 
tion fifteen.  Most  of  these  stories  were  the  Abra- 
ham Inlow  story  of  Bourbon  County,  Kentucky,  and 
came  from  people  who  had  lived  in  that  county  a 
great  number  of  years.  The  thing  of  vast  signi- 
ficance is  that  not  one  of  the  1116  men  and  women 
had  heard  of  anyone  who  had  heard  before  1860 
the  story  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  illegitimate 
child.  Truly  they  had  not,  for  the  story  was  never 
told  until  the  throes  of  a  Civil  War  caused  men  and 
women  deliberately  to  invent  a  story  to  slander  the 
name  of  a  good,  true,  virtuous,  Christian  woman. 


CHAPTER  IV 
EARLY  INFLUENCES 

Lincoln's  Life  in  Kentucky 

"A  child  was  born  to  poverty  and  toil, 
Save  in  the  sweet  prophecy  of  mother's  love 
None  dreamed  of  future  fame  for  himl" 

— Noah  Davis. 

Abraham  Lincoln  spent  the  first  seven  years  of 
his  life  in  the  state  where  he  was  born.  That  these 
were  eventful  years,  crowded  full  of  life  and  mean- 
ing, we  do  not  doubt,  for  we  know  that  little  Abe's 
Knob  Creek  home  was  located  on  the  highway  that 
ran  from  Louisville,  Kentucky,  to  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee. There  was  a  great  amount  of  traffic  on  this 
highway  and  many  people  passed  by  the  boy's  door. 
His  father  and  mother,  no  doubt,  often  talked  about 
what  these  people  were  doing  and  what  they  had 
learned  from  them.  And  are  we  not  to  believe  that 
Abraham  Lincoln,  past  six,  would  listen  with  wide 
open  eyes  and  ears  to  all  that  was  said  about  this 
great  world  of  adventure?  But  little  Abe  did  not 
have  to  get  the  information  secondhand.  These 
people — pioneers  moving  ever  westward,  politicians 
clamoring  for  office,  soldiers  returning  home  from 
the  War  of  1812,  peddlers  with  wares  to  sell,  land 
schemers  with  lands  to  dispose  of — all  stopped  at 
the  Lincoln  cabin  to  talk  with  Thomas  Lincoln. 
Here,  then,  in  Kentucky,  lived  a  boy  on  a  great 
highway,  pulsing  with  humanity,  people  coming,  go- 
ing, with  tales  to  tell  of  the  great  world  beyond  and 
here  was  laid  that  foundation  of  inquisitiveness  so 

41 


42  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

manifest  in  that  boy  during  his  life  in  Indiana. 
How  mistaken  writers  have  been  in  the  past  in  say- 
ing- that  Lincoln  always  lived  out  of  the  current 
of  history!     The  fact  is  that  he  was  always  in  it!1 

The  little  Mount  Baptist  Church  in  Kentucky  of 
which  Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln  were  members 
was  strongly  opposed  to  slavery  and  had  waged  an 
open  warfare  against  it.  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Nancy  Hanks  were  married  by  the  Rev.  Jesse  Head, 
a  Methodist  minister,  who  was  a  strong  foe  of  slav- 
ery. Lincoln  was  a  Jeffersonian  Democrat,  and  as 
Christopher  Columbus  Graham  says  in  his  affidavit 
published  elsewhere  in  this  book,  was  "just  steeped 
full  of  notions  about  the  wrongs  of  slavery  and  the 
rights  of  man,  as  explained  by  Thomas  Jefferson 
and  Thomas  Paine."  There  were  many  anti-slavery 
people  in  Kentucky,  and  in  Shelbyville,  not  far  from 
the  home  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  father  of  Thomas 
Lincoln,  there  was  published  an  anti-slavery  paper. 
Anti-slavery  meeting  were  held  and  speeches  made 
against  slavery.  Anti-slavery  literature  was  scat- 
tered far  and  wide,  and  we  may  feel  sure  that  it 
found  its  way  along  the  much  traveled  Louisville 
and  Nashville  highway  and  into  the  home  of  Thomas 
Lincoln.  Thomas  Lincoln  was  against  slavery  and 
we  have  Abraham  Lincoln's  own  words  for  it  in 
after  life  that  his  father  had  said  that  slavery  stood 
opposed  to  both  the  Bible  and  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Here  then  was  a  man,  upholding  the 
Bible  and  opposing  human  slavery,  in  the  presence 
of  a  boy  whose  inquisitive  mind  was  already  begin- 
ning to  ask  questions.  As  we  shall  see,  scarcely  a 
year  passed,  in  his  new  home  in  Indiana,  that  did 


EARLY  INFLUENCES  43 

not  give  young  Abraham  a  chance  to  see  and  know 
more  about  the  institution  of  human  slavery. 

The  Lincolns  Move  to  Indiana 

Kentucky — a  part  of  Virginia — had  no  official 
land  surveys  made  by  the  government.  Pioneers 
simply  moved  into  Kentucky,  took  up  the  land,  sent 
in  a  description  of  it,  and  paid  for  it.  Perhaps  the 
land  did  not  overlap  other  land  previously  taken  and 
perhaps  it  did.  In  case  of  overlapping,  law  suits 
followed.  Twice  Thomas  Lincoln  bought  land  and 
paid  for  it,  on  Nolin  Creek  and  on  Knob  Creek,  and 
later  was  sued  for  trespassing.  His  trouble  over 
land  titles  was  a  big  factor  in  determining  his  re- 
moval to  Indiana,  where  lands  were  surveyed  by  the 
government  and  where  there  would  be  no  question 
of  rightful  ownership.2  About  the  first  thing  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  did  after  he  selected  his  farm  in 
Indiana  and  marked  its  corners  by  brush  piles  was 
to  walk  to  Vincennes,  the  Capital,  and  attend  to  the 
filing  of  his  claim.  Here  is  the  evidence  of  the  wit- 
nesses most  competent  to  speak,  setting  forth  the 
reason  why  Thomas  Lincoln  moved  from  Kentucky : 
In  his  autobiography  written  in  June,  1860,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  says :  "This  removal  was  partly  on  ac- 
count of  slavery,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the  diffi- 
culty in  land  titles  in  Kentucky."3  And  Dennis 
Hanks  says  in  his  most  natural  way :  "Tom  got  hold 
o'  a  better  farm  after  'while,  but  he  couldn't  git  a 
clear  title  to  it,  so  when  Abe  was  eight  year  old,  and 
I  was  eighteen,  we  all  lit  out  fur  Indiany.  Kain- 
tucky  was  gittin'  stuck  up,  with  some  folks  rich 
enough  to  own  niggers,  so  it  didn't  seem  no  place  fur 
pore  folks  any  more."4 


44  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Some  fifteen  miles  inland  from  Troy,  Indiana, 
Thomas  Lincoln  staked  out  a  claim  in  a  region  then 
occupied  by  only  seven  families.  He  set  to  work  to 
build  his  "half  faced  camp"  and  in  ten  days'  time 
is  was  finished,  doubtless  with  the  aid  of  his  neigh- 
bors. Lincoln  then  returned  to  his  Kentucky  home, 
walking  a  distance  of  over  one  hundred  miles.  He 
made  ready  to  move  his  family  to  his  new  home — 
his  wife  and  two  children,  Sarah,  age  nine,  and 
Abraham,  age  seven — where  they  arrived  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1816. 

The  home  that  awaited  them  was  indeed  far 
from  pretentious.  It  was  a  one-room  pole  cabin, 
fourteen  feet  square,  made  of  small  sapling  logs  or 
poles.  It  had  but  three  sides  closed ;  the  fourth  one 
was  left  open  and  a  heap  of  logs  was  left  burning 
before  it  during  cold  weather.  The  log  cabin  had 
neither  windows,  doors,  ceiling,  nor  floor.  The  Lin- 
colns  did  not  bring  much  furniture  with  them — a 
Dutch  oven,  a  skillet,  some  tinware,  and  bedding. 
Thomas  Lincoln  built  a  rude  bed  in  one  corner  of 
the  room  on  which  he  and  Nancy  slept  and  in  an- 
other corner  a  pile  of  leaves  furnished  the  bed  for 
Sarah  and  Abraham.  "Choppin'  trees,  an'  grubbin' 
roots,  an'  splittin'  rails,  an'  hunting  an'  trappin' 
didn't  leave  Tom  no  time  to  put  a  puncheon  floor 
in  his  cabin.  It  was  all  he  could  do  to  git  his  fambly 
enough  to  eat  and  to  kiver  'em.  .  .  ."5  Those  were 
"pinching  times,"  no  doubt,  but  we  must  not  forget 
that  nature  was  bountiful — the  woods  were  full  of 
wild  grapes,  crab  apples,  blackberries,  and  nuts  of 
all  kinds;  wild  game,  too,  was  plentiful — turkeys, 
geese,  ducks,  deer,  and  bears. 


EARLY  INFLUENCES  45 

The  Marriage  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Sarah  Bush  Johnston 

A  year  after  the  death  of  Nancy,  which  we  de- 
scribed in  a  previous  chapter,  Thomas  Lincoln  re- 
turned to  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  and  married 
Sarah  Bush  Johnston.  Speaking  of  their  courtship 
and  marriage,  Samuel  Haycraft,  the  veteran  clerk 
of  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  said  in  1874: 

"I  was  born  in  this  town  on  the  14th  of  August, 
1795,  and  have  a  good  memory  of  persons  and  things 
as  they  existed  in  'auld  lang  syne/  I  knew  Thomas 
Lincoln  well.  His  second  wife  was  originally  Miss 
Sally  Bush,  daughter  of  Christopher  and  Hannah 
Bush,  and  was  raised  in  Hardin  County,  half  a  mile 
from  Elizabethtown.  She  was  married  to  Daniel 
Johnston  on  the  13th  of  March,  1806,  and  lived  in 
Elizabethtown,  where  he  died  early  in  April,  1814. 
.  .  .  His  widow  continued  to  live  here  until  the 
2nd  of  December,  1819.  Thomas  Lincoln  returned 
to  this  place  on  the  1st  day  of  December,  and  in- 
quired for  the  residence  of  Widow  Johnston.  She 
lived  near  the  clerk's  office.  I  was  the  clerk,  and 
informed  him  how  to  find  her.  He  was  not  slow 
to  present  himself  before  her,  when  the  following 
courtship  occurred.    He  said  to  her: 

"  'I  am  a  lone  man,  and  you  are  a  lone  woman. 
I  have  knowed  you  from  a  girl,  and  you  have  knowed 
me  from  a  boy;  and  I  have  come  all  the  way  from 
Indiana  to  ask  if  you'll  marry  me  right  off,  as  I've 
no  time  to  lose.' 

"To  which  she  replied:  Tommy  Lincoln,  I  have 
no  objection  to  marrying  you,  but  I  cannot  do  it 
right  off,  for  I  owe  several  little  debts  which  must 
first  be  paid.' 


46 


LINCOLN  THE  IIOOSIER 


"The  gallant  man  promptly  said :  'Give  me  a  list 
of  your  debts/  The  list  was  furnished,  and  the 
debts  were  paid  the  same  evening.  The  next  morn- 
ing, December  2nd,  1819,  I  issued  the  license,  and 
the  same  day  they  were  married,  bundled  up,  and 
started  for  home.,, 

Sarah  Bush  Johnston  was  tall,  slender,  very  good 
looking,  and  was  taken  in  those  days  to  be  quite  a 
gay  and  graceful  lady.    She  added  much  to  the  com- 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana- — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

The  cabin  home  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Indiana  from 

a  drawing  made  in  1860  while  the  cabin  was 

still  standing 


fort  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  Indiana  home  and  made 
many  needed  improvements  when  she  became  mis- 
tress there.6  She  brought  with  her  her  household 
utensils — "one  fine  bureau,  one  table,   one  set  of 


EARLY  INFLUENCES  47 

chairs,  one  large  clothes-chest,  cooking  utensils, 
knives,  forks,  bedding,  and  other  articles."7  "She 
had  a  f our-hoss  wagon-load  o'  goods — feather  pillers 
an*  homespun  blankets,  an*  patchwork  quilts,  an' 
chists  o'  drawers,  an'  a  flax-wheel  an'  a  soap  kittle, 
an'  cookin'  pots  an'  pewder  dishes — lot  o'  truck  like 
that  'at  made  a  heap  o'  diifrunce  in  a  backwoods 
cabin."8  She  had  her  husband  put  a  floor  in  the 
cabin,  hang  doors  and  cut  windows,  daub  up  the 
cracks  better  between  the  logs  to  keep  out  the  cold, 
and  patch  the  roof.  The  Lincolns  soon  had  one  of 
the  best  houses  in  the  country.  She  also  made  cloth- 
ing for  the  children.  Later  on,  speaking  of  this, 
Lincoln  said  that  "it  made  him  feel  like  somebody." 
Sarah  Bush  Lincoln  was  full  of  vigor  and  energy, 
and  as  she  was  physically  fit  so  she  was  mentally 
and  religiously  fit.  Such  a  woman  came  into  the 
life  of  little  Abe  just  at  the  time  when  the  boy 
needed  a  friend  and  counselor.  And  this  she  be- 
came.9 

Lamon  says  that  Dennis  Hanks  gave,  in  sub- 
stance, the  following  account  of  Sally  Bush  Lincoln : 
"She  was  a  woman  of  great  energy,  of  remarkable 
good  sense,  very  industrious  and  saving,  and  also 
very  neat  and  tidy  in  her  person  and  manners,  and 
knew  exactly  how  to  manage  children.  She  took 
an  especial  liking  to  young  Abe.  Her  love  for  him 
was  warmly  returned,  and  continued  to  the  day  of 
his  death.  But  few  children  loved  their  parents  as 
he  loved  his  stepmother.  She  soon  dressed  him  up 
in  entire  new  clothes,  and  from  that  time  on  he 
appeared  to  lead  a  new  life.  He  was  encouraged 
by  her  to  study,  and  any  wish  on  his  part  was  grati- 
fied when  it  could  be  done.    The  two  sets  of  children 


48  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

got  along  finely  together,  as  if  they  had  all  been  the 
children  of  the  same  parents.  Mrs.  Lincoln  soon 
discovered  that  young  Abe  was  a  boy  of  uncommon 
natural  talents,  and  that,  if  rightly  trained,  a  bright 
future  was  before  him,  and  she  did  all  in  her  power 
to  develop  those  talents."10 

In  an  interview  with  Eleanor  Atkinson,  Dennis 
Hanks  speaking  of  Sally  Bush  Lincoln,  said:  "Aunt 
Sairy  sartainly  did  have  faculty.  I  reckon  we  was 
all  purty  ragged  and  dirty  when  she  got  there.  The 
first  thing  she  did  was  to  tell  me  to  tote  one  of 
Tom's  carpenter  benches  to  a  place  outside  the  door, 
near  the  hoss  trough.  Then  she  had  me  an'  Abe  an' 
John  Johnston,  her  boy,  fill  the  trough  with  spring 
water.  She  put  out  a  gourd  full  of  soft  soap,  and 
another  one  to  dip  water,  an'  told  us  boys  to  wash 
up  for  dinner.  You  just  naturally  had  to  be  some- 
body when  Aunt  Sairy  was  around.  She  had  Tom 
build  her  a  loom,  an'  when  she  heard  o'  some  lime 
burners  bein'  round  Gentryville,  Tom  had  to  mosey 
over  an'  git  some  lime  an'  whitewash  the  cabin.  An' 
he  made  her  an'  ash  hopper  fur  lye,  an'  a  chicken- 
house  nothin'  could  get  into.  .  .  .  Cracky,  but  Aunt 
Sally  was  some  punkins  !"n 


CHAPTER  V 
LINCOLN'S  EARLY  BIOGRAPHERS 

Their  Mistaken  Views  of  His  Environment 

"O,  honest  face,  which  all  men  knew 

O  tender  heart,  but  known  to  feiv." 

—R.  H.  Stoddard. 

John  E.  Iglehart  of  Evansville,  Indiana,  says 
that  there  were  three  classes  of  society  in  the  pio- 
neer days  of  Southern  Indiana,  during  the  time  that 
Lincoln  lived  there.  First  there  was  the  highly  in- 
tellectual class,  including  public  officials,  lawyers, 
doctors,  preachers,  teachers — a  class  about  whom 
very  little  has  been  written  and  of  whom  there  was 
a  goodly  number.  Secondly,  there  was  the  great 
body  of  the  people,  solid  and  substantial,  many  of 
whom  were  intelligent  but  most  of  whom  had  lacked 
opportunity  for  an  early  education,  but  who  seized 
upon  every  chance  to  educate  themselves.  The  vast 
majority  of  these  were  good,  honest  people  with  a 
grim  determination  to  succeed  in  life.  The  third 
class  was  made  up  of  men  of  low  social,  moral,  and 
intellectual  life.  They  were  illiterate,  rude,  vulgar, 
and  often  vicious. 

The  historical  writers  have  pictured  the  history 
of  Southern  Indiana  as  built  upon  this  lower  stra- 
tum of  society.  This  is  especially  true  of  Edward 
Eggleston  in  his  The  Hoosier  Schoolmaster  and  of 
Baynard  Rush  Hall  in  his  New  Purchase.  Eggleston 
described  the  life  of  the  low  class  of  people  living 
along  the  Ohio  River  and  did  it  so  well  and  so  thor- 
oughly that  even  today,  outside  of  Indiana,  "Hoo- 

40 


50  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

sier"  and  "Hoopole  township,  Posey  County,"  when 
referred  to  in  company,  bring  forth  smiles.  The 
Hoosier  Schoolmaster  in  no  manner  paints  a  true  pic- 
ture of  the  average  or  the  better  class  of  people  of 
Southern  Indiana.  This  book  has  been  and  still  is 
widely  read  and  has  done  the  people  of  Indiana  a 
great  injustice.  Nothing  that  has  been  written  so 
far  has  been  able  to  counteract  and  correct  this 
wrong.  Historical  novels  are  all  too  often  more 
"novel"  than  "history"  and  this  contribution  is 
surely  a  case  in  point.  Concerning  the  writings  of 
Baynard  Rush  Hall,  Colonel  John  E.  Iglehart  says: 
"Hairs  New  Purchase  never  had  any  excuse  for  its 
publication  as  it  was  written,  except  the  undisguised 
bitterness  of  a  revengeful  man.  ...  It  contains, 
with  some  interesting  descriptions,  a  strange  repe- 
tition of  offensive  coarseness  of  speech  and  man- 
ners, traits  of  the  lowest  class  mentioned,  upon 
which  the  writer  continually  dwells,  evidently  in- 
tending maliciously  to  do  what  was  unintentionally 
accomplished  in  Eggleston's  writings.  It  is  believed 
that  the  book  has  not  been  extensively  read,  but  it 
offers  an  excuse  to  unfriendly  critics  of  early  In- 
diana people."1 

The  East  in  general,  and  New  England,  in  parti- 
cular, has  never  been  friendly  to  the  pioneer  West. 
New  England  had  political  and  economic  reasons 
for  her  selfish  stand.  She  opposed  Jefferson's  pur- 
chase of  Louisiana  in  1803  on  the  ground  that  new 
states  would  be  carved  out  of  the  territory  thus  se- 
cured and  that  by  their  admission  into  the  Union, 
through  their  representation  in  Congress,  her  hold 
upon  the  government  would  be  weakened.  Then, 
the  cheap  land  of  the  West  would  invite  her  sturdy 


■   .,:  :,    I.imnhi    M 


■ 


LINCOLN'S  EARLY  BIOGRAPHERS  51 

sons  to  leave  her  mills  and  factories  and  take  up 
homesteads  for  themselves  and  to  hold  them  she 
would  have  to  increase  their  wages.  On  the  Indian 
question  New  England  opposed  the  West  and  was 
perfectly  contented  to  protect  the  poor  Indians 
against  the  Westerner  who  was  trying  to  drive  them 
from  his  midst,  forgetting  that  these  same  Indians 
or  their  ancestry  had  been  driven  from  their  homes 
in  the  East.  New  England  opposed  the  War  of  1812 
and  the  actions  of  Henry  Clay  and  other  Western 
men  in  upholding  the  honor  of  our  country.  In 
1814  the  infamous  Hartford  Convention  was  held 
behind  locked  doors  with  a  view  toward  breaking 
up  the  Union  unless  the  War  of  1812  was  stopped. 
New  England's  commerce  was  being  injured!  But 
the  West  and  the  South,  where  real  Americanism 
was  found,  triumphed  and  the  war  was  pushed. 
When  the  Hartford  Convention  was  being  held, 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  family  were  in  Kentucky 
and  little  Abe  was  five  years  old.  They  lived  in  an 
extremely  patriotic  state  and  were  seen  to  move  to 
another  just  as  patriotic.  Kentucky's  great  citizen, 
Henry  Clay,  was  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives and  filled  that  body  with  the  fighting  spirit 
that  brought  on  the  declaration  of  war.  New  Eng- 
land did  not  forget  these  things,  and  for  that  reason 
or  for  other  reasons  the  New  England  and  Eastern 
historical  writers  have  been  manifestly  unfair  to  the 
frontier  West.  Hall's  New  Purchase  well  illustrates 
this  attitude. 

But  other  writers  besides  Eggleston  and  Hall  did 
not  know  the  truth  about  conditions  in  Southern  In- 
diana. William  H.  Herndon,  Lincoln's  law  partner 
and  biographer,  is  also  a  serious  offender.    The  fol- 


52  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

lowing  statement  from  Mr.  Herndon  shows  quite 
conclusively  that  he  did  not  know  the  real  environ- 
ment of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Indiana:  "To  compre- 
hend Mr.  Lincoln  we  must  know  in  substance  not 
only  the  facts  of  his  origin,  but  also  the  manner  of 
his  development.  It  will  always  be  a  matter  of  won- 
der to  the  American  people,  I  have  no  doubt — as  it 
has  been  to  me— that  from  such  restricted  and  un- 
promising opportunities  in  early  life,  Mr.  Lincoln 
grew  into  the  great  man  he  was.  The  foundation 
for  his  education  was  laid  in  Indiana  and  in  the 
little  town  of  New  Salem  in  Illinois,  and  in  both 
places  he  gave  evidence  of  a  nature  and  character- 
istics that  distinguished  him  from  every  associate 
and  surrounding  he  had."2 

Mr.  Jesse  Weik  says:  "Scarcely  a  month  had 
elapsed  after  the  tragedy  at  Ford's  Theatre,  in 
April,  1865,  before  Herndon  had  set  out  for  Ken- 
tucky and  Southern  Indiana  and  begun  an  investi- 
gation so  vigorous,  conscientious,  and  exhaustive 
that  the  world  will  always  be  deeply  in  his  debt. 
He  was  the  first  man  on  the  ground  and  likewise 
the  first  man  to  meet  and  examine  the  few  material 
and  competent  witnesses  of  Lincoln's  advent  into 
the  world  still  living.  He  pursued  his  researches 
with  rare  vigilance  and  assiduity,  toiling  inces- 
santly ;  nor  did  he  cease  his  labors  until  he  had  dug 
to  the  very  bottom  in  his  search  for  the  truth. 
Later  in  compliance  with  his  generous  suggestion, 
I  followed  him,  traversing  the  same  path  and  visit- 
ing the  same  localities;  and  although  I  labored  to 
the  limit  of  my  zeal  and  endurance  I  was  never  con- 
scious of  having  added  materially  to  the  store  of 
information  he  had  already  accumulated;  nor  of 


LINCOLN'S  EARLY  BIOGRAPHERS  53 

encountering  anything  of  a  valuable  or  interesting 
character  which  he  had  not  unearthed  himself.  The 
truth  is  the  field  was  so  barren  of  material  neither 
of  us  could  gather  much  that  was  significant  or 
trustworthy ;  but  we  consoled  ourselves  with  the  re- 
flection that  we  had,  to  the  point  of  exhaustion,  ex- 
plored every  avenue  that  led  to  accurate  or  intelli- 
gent information."3 

That  the  world  does  owe  much  to  Herndon  and 
his  helper,  Mr.  Weik,  for  their  work  on  Lincoln  we 
agree,  but  Mr.  Weik  is  mistaken  when  he  says  that 
Mr.  Herndon  carried  on  in  Southern  Indiana  a  "vig- 
orous and  exhaustive"  investigation  in  regard  to 
Lincoln's  life  there.  He  did  not  there  dig  "to  the 
very  bottom  in  his  search  for  the  truth."  In  fact 
he  did  not  scratch  the  surface.  Again,  Mr.  Weik  is 
mistaken  when  he  says :  "The  truth  is  the  field  was 
so  barren  of  material  neither  of  us  could  gather 
much  that  was  significant  or  trustworthy."  It  is 
the  hope  of  the  author  that  this  volume  will  prove 
that  the  field  was  not  so  barren  as  Mr.  Weik  has 
pictured  it  to  be.  Again  Mr.  Weik  is  mistaken  when 
he  says  that  they  "had,  to  the  point  of  exhaustion, 
explored  every  avenue  that  led  to  accurate  or  in- 
telligent information."  It  is  the  belief  of  the  author 
that  Herndon  and  Weik  could  have  found  a  greater 
amount  of  material  had  they  taken  time  to  do  so. 
They  did  not  secure  facts  from  competent  witnesses, 
like  the  office-holding  class,  doctors,  lawyers,  judges, 
and  members  of  the  cultured  British  settlement. 

Ward  Hill  Lamon,  one  of  Lincoln's  early  biogra- 
phers, says:  "Were  I  to  say  in  this  polite  age  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  a  condition  of  life 
most  humble  and  obscure,  and  that  he  was  sur- 


54  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

rounded  by  circumstances  most  unfavorable  to  cul- 
ture and  to  the  development  of  that  nobility  and 
purity  which  his  wonderful  character  afterward  dis- 
played, it  would  shock  the  fastidious  and  superfine 
sensibilities  of  the  average  reader,  would  be  re- 
garded as  prima  facie  evidence  of  felonious  intent, 
and  would  subject  me  to  the  charge  of  being  in- 
spired by  an  antagonistic  animus.  In  justice  to  the 
truth  of  history,  however,  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  such  are  the  facts  concerning  this  great  man, 
regarding  whom  nothing  should  be  concealed  from 
public  scrutiny,  either  in  the  surroundings  of  his 
birth,  his  youth,  his  manhood,  or  his  private  and 
public  life  and  character."4 

Here  is  a  classic  from  Mr.  Lamon's  book,  page 
69,  where  he  speaks  of  young  Lincoln's  essay  on 
politics:  "This  article  was  consigned,  like  the  others, 
to  Mr.  Wood,  to  be  ushered  by  him  before  the  pub- 
lic. A  lawyer  named  Pritchard  chanced  to  pass  that 
way,  and,  being  favored  with  a  perusal  of  Abe's 
"piece,"  pithily  and  enthusiastically  declared,  'The 
world  can't  beat  it !'  "  Now  the  "lawyer  named 
Pritchard"  who  "chanced  to  pass  that  way"  is  none 
other  than  the  famous  Judge  John  Pitcher  of  Rock- 
port.  Had  Mr.  Lamon  known  anything  about  the 
environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Indiana  he 
would  have  known  of  Judge  Pitcher  and  his  eminent 
services. 

This  book  will  prove,  the  author  believes,  that 
Mr.  Lamon,  like  most  of  the  writers  of  Lincoln,  is 
mistaken  about  the  character  and  the  culture  of  the 
people  of  Southern  Indiana  with  whom  Lincoln  grew 
to  manhood.  Instead  of  being  "surrounded  by  cir- 
cumstances most  unfavorable  to  culture  and  to  the 


LINCOLN'S  EARLY  BIOGRAPHERS  55 

development  of  that  nobility  and  purity  which  his 
wonderful  character  afterward  displayed,"  he  grew 
up  among  cultured  men  and  women,  who  helped  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  him  upon  which  it  was  pos- 
sible to  build  a  pure  and  noble  life.  Perhaps  Mr. 
Lamon  should  not  be  subjected  "to  the  charge  of 
being  inspired  by  an  antagonistic  animus,"  but  he 
should  be  and  is  subjected  to  the  charge  that  he  did 
not  know  Lincoln  in  the  making  and  never  made 
any  real  effort  to  find  out  the  facts  about  his  early 
life. 

One  of  the  latest  and  best  writers  on  the  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  is  Rev.  William  E.  Barton.  But 
even  he  has  failed  to  grasp  the  environment  of  Lin- 
coln in  Indiana,  for  he  says:  "On  this  farm  in  the 
backwoods  in  the  Pigeon  Creek  settlement,  with 
eight  or  ten  families  as  neighbors,  and  with  the 
primitive  village  of  Gentryville  a  mile  and  a  half 
distant,  Abraham  Lincoln  grew  to  manhood.  Ex- 
cepting for  a  brief  experience  as  a  ferryman  on  the 
Ohio  River  and  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  which  he 
made  upon  a  flatboat,  his  horizon  was  bounded  by 
this  environment  from  the  time  he  was  eight  until 
he  was  twenty-one."5 


CHAPTER  VI 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING 

In  Kentucky 

"And  weary  seekers  of  the  best, 
We  come  back  laden  from  our  quest. 
To  find  that  all  the  sages  said — 
Is  in  the  Book  our  mothers  read." 

— Whittier. 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  four  years  old  he 
attended  his  first  school,  in  Kentucky.  His  atten- 
dance was  for  a  very  short  time  and  it  is  said  he 
went  merely  to  accompany  his  sister  Sarah.  His 
teacher  was  Zachariah  Riney.  Abe  was  seven  years 
old  when  he  attended  his  next  school  which  was  kept 
by  Caleb  Hazel.1  Years  later,  speaking  of  his  school- 
ing in  Kentucky,  Lincoln  said  that  he  and  his  sister 
Sarah  "were  sent  for  short  periods  to  A,  B,  C 
schools.  .  .  ."  The  schoolhuse  was  about  two  miles 
from  the  Lincoln  home;  it  was  a  log  house  fifteen 
feet  square.  It  is  still  standing  but  not  as  it  was 
when  Sarah  and  Abraham  attended,  for  it  is  now  a 
part  of  a  comfortable  farm  house. 

The  slowly  accumulating  evidence  proves  that 
both  Riney  and  Hazel  were  far  better  teachers  than 
the  scant  recorded  material  in  Lincoln's  biographies 
shows.  Mr.  John  J.  Barry,  editor  of  Rolling  Fork 
Echo,  New  Haven,  Kentucky,  says  that  Riney  was 
a  man  of  considerable  culture,  "a  gentleman,"  who 
taught  manners  and  morals  in  his  school.  Mr.  Riney 
was  a  Catholic,  members  of  that  church  being  nu- 
merous in  that  part  of  Kentucky  at  that  time.    One 

56 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING  57 

of  these  Catholic  communities  was  only  eight  miles 
away  from  the  Lincoln  home,  near  New  Haven.  It 
is  now  Gethsemane  monastery.  There  was  another 
Catholic  community  eighteen  miles  away  at  Bards- 
town.  In  these  communities  lived  many  fine,  cul- 
tured people  and  one  of  these  was  Lincoln's  school 
teacher.  We  may  feel  sure  that  Thomas  and 
Nancy  Lincoln  came  in  contact  with  them  more  or 
less  as  they  passed  back  and  forth  upon  the  high- 
way. Who  knows  but  that  from  these  Godly  people 
Nancy  Lincoln  received  a  great  vision  of  a  great  life 
and  transmitted  it  to  her  son,  whose  mind  at  that 
time  was  "wax  to  receive  and  marble  to  retain,' ' 
when  he  kneeled  at  her  side  during  the  long  winter 
evenings  by  the  fireside  as  she  poured  out  to  him 
the  stories  of  the  Bible.  Caleb  Hazel,  Lincoln's 
school  teacher,  owned  a  farm  adjoining  the  Lincoln's 
and  was  their  friend  and  neighbor. 

It  used  to  be  said  that  Sister  Melania  (Buckman) 
of  the  Sisters  of  Nazareth,  who  was  related  to  the 
Lincoln  family,  was  Abe's  first  teacher.  The  fact 
that  the  Lincoln  farm  was  so  far  from  her  habita- 
tion made  the  story  look  impossible,  but  since  Rev. 
Mr.  Barton  has  shown  that  Lincoln's  youth  was 
spent  not  on  that  farm  but  this  side  Muldraugh's 
hill,  the  difficulty  that  militated  against  this  tradi- 
tion has  been  removed.  If  she  had  merely  taught 
him  to  count  five,  or  to  recite  A  and  B  and  C,  that 
fact  would  have  justified  the  recital.  No  one  can 
say  that  it  is  not  true.    It  is  in  possession. 

We  may  feel  quite  safe  in  saying  that  the  amount 
of  learning  secured  by  little  Abe  in  the  Kentucky 
schools  was  very  slight.  He,  perhaps,  learned  the 
alphabet  and  a  few  pages  of  Webster's  Elementary 


58  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Spelling  Book  and  was  able  to  write  out  the  words 
he  spelled. 

Among  Lincoln's  fellow  pupils  at  the  school  of 
Zachariah  Riney  was  John  B.  Hutchins,  who  later 
became  a  Catholic  priest;  and  perhaps  Hutchins's 
half-brother,  later  the  Rev.  Charles  D.  Bowlin  of  the 
Order  of  St.  Dominic.  Father  Hutchins  became  a 
celebrated  educator  and  lived  until  February  9,  1873 ; 
yet  about  the  only  recollection  he  left  us  of  his  school 
mate  is  that  the  child's  name  was  then  pronounced 
Link-horn.  Young  children's  names  are  even  to- 
day sometimes  mispronounced  at  school  both  by  pu- 
pils and  by  teachers. 

Samuel  Haycraft  was  a  schoolmate  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  when  they  attended  Caleb  Hazel's  school. 
Speaking  of  Mr.  Hazel,  Mr.  Haycraft  in  1866  said : 
"He  perhaps  could  teach  spelling  and  reading  and 
indifferent  writing,  and  possibly  could  cipher  to  the 
rule  of  three.  .  .  .  Abe  was  a  mere  spindle  of  a  boy, 
had  his  due  proportion  of  harmless  mischief,  but  as 
we  lived  in  a  country  abounding  in  hazel  switches, 
in  the  virtue  of  which  the  master  had  great  faith, 
Abe  of  course  received  his  due  allowance."2 

Mr.  Charles  C.  Coffin  says  that  Austin  Gollaher, 
who  attended  school  in  Kentucky  with  Lincoln,  in- 
formed him  that  Riney  and  Hazel  had  only  a  spell- 
ing book  containing  spelling  words  and  easy  lessons 
in  reading.  When  the  advanced  pupils  had  finished 
the  book  they  would  start  over  again. 

In  Indiana 

In  Indiana,  it  is  believed,  Lincoln  attended  dif- 
ferent sessions  of  school,  scattered  over  a  period  of 
years,  the  first  when  he  was  ten  years  of  age,  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING  59 

second  when  he  was  fourteen,  and  the  third  when 
he  was  seventeen.  He  went  to  school  "by  littles" 
and  altogether  for  not  more  than  a  year.  In  his 
autobiography  written  in  1860  Lincoln  said  he  wrent 
to  schools  in  Indiana  kept  by  Andrew  Crawford, — 
Sweeney,  and  Azel  W.  Dorsey  but  that  he  did  not 
remember  any  others.  But  Mr.  Charles  T.  Baker, 
editor  of  the  Grand  View,  Indiana,  Monitor,  believes 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  other  teachers  in  the  Hoosier 
State,  including  James  H.  Brown,  William  Price, 
John  Prosser,  and  John  W.  Crooks.  The  Indiana 
schools  were  know  as  "blab"  schools.  The  name  wras 
entirely  appropriate  for  the  pupils  were  compelled 
to  study  their  lessons  aloud.  This  studying  aloud 
was  a  pedagogical  device  used  by  the  teacher  to  see 
that  each  pupil  was  kept  at  work.  It  was  also  used 
because  of  the  scarcity  of  textbooks — the  teacher 
read  the  lesson  aloud  and  then  had  the  pupils  recite 
it  after  him.  In  early  colonial  days  that  was  the 
way  the  songs  were  sung  in  the  churches.  As  there 
was  but  one  hymn  book,  the  minister  or  deacon 
would  read  a  line  of  the  song  and  the  congregation 
would  sing  it ;  then  another  line  was  read  and  sung, 
and  so  on  until  the  song  was  finished.  It  is  more 
than  likely  that  Abe  never  owned  a  school  textbook 
of  his  own  while  in  school  and  that  his  voice  was 
among  those  of  the  "blab"  school  following  the 
teacher.  But  he  did  more  than  merely  repeat  the 
words;  he  thought  out  their  meaning;  he  pondered 
over  them;  he  committed  to  memory  the  choice  se- 
lections that  appealed  to  him.  Through  his  entire 
life  Lincoln  read  aloud.  When  he  prepared  his 
speeches  he  recited  them  over  and  over  again — a 
habit  acquired  in  the  "blab"  schools  in  Indiana.3 


60  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

In  his  autobiographical  sketch  written  for  Mr. 
Jesse  W.  Fell,  December  20,  1859,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
speaking  of  their  new  home  in  Indiana  said :  "It  was 
a  wild  region,  with  many  bears  and  other  wild  ani- 
mals still  in  the  woods.  There  I  grew  up.  There 
were  some  schools,  so  called,  but  no  qualification  was 
ever  required  of  a  teacher  beyond  "readin',  writing 
and  cipherin'  "  to  the  rule  of  three.  If  a  straggler 
supposed  to  understand  Latin  happened  to  sojourn 
in  the  neighborhood,  he  was  looked  upon  as  a  wiz- 
ard. There  was  absolutely  nothing  to  excite  ambi- 
tion for  education.  Of  course  when  I  came  of  age 
I  did  not  know  much.  Still,  somehow,  I  could  read, 
write,  and  cipher  to  the  rule  of  three.  ...  I  have 
not  been  to  school  since.  The  little  advance  I  now 
have  upon  this  store  of  education,  I  have  picked  up 
from  time  to  time  under  the  pressure  of  necessity."4 

The  log  schoolhouses  in  which  Lincoln  attended 
school  were  as  poor  as  were  his  teachers  and  their 
methods  of  instruction.  The  furniture  was  of  the 
rudest  kind;  the  benches  were  made  of  puncheon; 
greased  paper  was  used  for  window  panes.  The 
schools  possessed  no  maps,  globes,  charts,  nor  black- 
boards. The  pupils  had  no  slates.  Paper  was  used 
for  writing  purposes  and  each  pupil  made  his  own 
' 'copy-book"  or  "sum-book."  The  ink  was  home- 
made— the  juices  of  berries — and  the  pens  were 
made  of  goose  quills  and  turkey  quills. 

Arithmetic  or  ciphering  held  an  important  place 
in  the  school  program.  Generally  the  teacher  was 
the  only  one  who  possessed  an  arithmetic;  so  the 
sums  were  dictated  by  him  to  the  class  and  copied 
by  the  students  in  their  "sum-books."  Young  Lin- 
coln made  his  "sum-books"  out  of  paper  about  nine 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING  61 

by  twelve  inches  in  size  and  sewed  the  leaves  to- 
gether with  twine.  His  stepmother  had  several 
sheets  of  one  of  his  "sum-books"  when  Herndon  vis- 
ited her  in  Charleston,  Illinois,  in  quest  of  Lincoln 
material.  On  one  of  the  pages,  Abe  had  copied  the 
table  of  Long  Measure : 

"Three  barley-corns  make  one  inch, 
Four  inches  one  hand,"  etc. 
On  the  lower  left  hand  corner  of  one  of  the  pages 
young  Lincoln  had  written  the  following  school  boy 
doggerel : 

"Abraham  Lincoln 

his  hand  and  pen 

he  will  be  good  but 

god  knows  When."5 

Mr.  William  H.  Lambert  of  Philadelphia,  Penn- 
sylvania, has  in  his  collection  of  Lincolniana  a  leaf 
from  Lincoln's  "sum-book"  made  in  1824  when  Lin- 
coln was  fifteen  years  old.  It  contains  five  problems 
in  multiplication  of  the  following  style:  multiply 
3,456,782  by  30,406.  After  securing  the  answers, 
the  lad  proved  the  correctness  of  his  problems  by 
dividing  the  answers  by  the  multipliers.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  sheet  appears  in  bold  script  letters — 
"Abraham  Lincoln. 

Book."6 

By  the  time  Lincoln  was  seventeen  years  of  age, 
he  was  a  good  penman — the  best  in  the  neighbor- 
hood— and  he  was  a  good  "arithmeticker,"  too,  able 
to  work  all  the  problems  to  the  "Rule  of  Three." 
Referring  to  this,  Mr.  Arnold,  one  of  his  early  bi- 
ographers, says:  "I  have  in  my  possession  a  few 
pages  from  his  manuscript  'Book  of  Examples  in 


62  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Arithmetic'  One  of  these  is  dated  March  1,  1826, 
and  headed  'Discount,'  and  then  follows  in  his  care- 
ful handwriting*:  'A  definition  of  Discount,'  'Rules 
for  its  computation,'  'Proofs  and  Various  Examples,' 
worked  out  in  figures,  etc. ;  then  'Interest  on  money' 
is  treated  in  the  same  way,  all  in  his  own  handwrit- 
ing. I  doubt  whether  it  would  be  easy  to  find  among 
scholars  of  our  common  or  high  schools,  or  any 
school  of  boys  of  the  age  of  seventeen,  a  better 
written  specimen  of  this  sort  of  work,  or  a  better 
knowledge  of  figures  than  is  indicated  by  this  book 
of  Lincoln's  written  at  the  age  of  seventeen." 

In  these  early  Indiana  schools  reading*  was  a 
very  important  subject  and  fortunately  the  readers 
used  contained  material  of  a  varied  nature.  Some 
selections  dealt  with  historical  subjects,  others  with 
geographical  subjects,  and  others  with  natural 
science.  There  were  many  lessons  of  love  of  coun- 
try and  many  selections  of  a  deep  moral  nature 
stressing  the  love  of  fair  play  and  setting  forth  the 
proposition  that  "might  does  not  make  right."  Who 
can  doubt  that  from  these  readers,  and  especially 
from  the  Kentucky  Preceptor  of  which  we  shall 
speak  later,  young  Lincoln  learned  those  great  and 
good  lessons  that  were  to  remain  with  him  always 
and  guide  his  every  action? 

Spelling,  too,  was  an  important  subject.  Spell- 
ing matches  were  held  in  the  school  nearly  every 
day.  The  entire  school  would  "choose  sides"  and 
continue  to  spell  until  all  the  pupils  were  "spelled 
down."  Often  during  the  long  winter  evenings  the 
neighborhood  would  gather  at  the  schoolhouse  and 
have  an  old-fashioned  spelling  match.  Lincoln  be- 
came a  famous  speller  and  was  always  the  first  one 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SCHOOLING  63 

chosen  in  the  contest.  After  a  while  he  was  not 
permitted  to  take  part  but  this  did  not  prevent  him 
from  helping  his  friends  to  win.  On  the  occasion 
of  one  of  the  Friday  afternoon  spelling  matches, 
the  schoolmaster  Crawford  gave  out  the  word  "de- 
fied." Two  pupils  had  missed  the  word  when  it 
came  to  one  of  Abe's  little  girl  friends,  a  Miss  Robey. 
She  started  to  spell  but  hesitated,  not  knowing 
whether  the  word  was  spelled  with  "fi"  or  "fy." 
She  looked  at  Lincoln  who  instantly  put  his  finger  to 
his  eye.  She  caught  the  sign  and  spelled  the  word. 
The  spelling  craze  was  given  great  impetus  by  Noah 
Webster's  Blue  Back  Speller,  which  was  widely  used 
at  this  time  all  over  the  country. 

The  pioneer  schools  of  Indiana  held  Friday  after- 
noon exercises,  consisting  of  declamations,  oratory, 
and  dialogues.  At  the  close  of  the  school  year  a 
general  program  of  such  was  given.  To  these  pro- 
grams the  parents  came  to  see  their  children  take 
part.  In  all  these  exercises.  Lincoln  was  easily  first 
— he  liked  to  speak  pieces,  deliver  orations,  and  take 
part  in  dialogues.  And  then  he  was  the  best  debater 
in  the  frequent  contests  held  in  the  school  during 
exercises  or  in  the  neighborhood  after  school  hours. 
He  often  debated  such  questions  as :  "Resolved,  that 
fire  is  more  destructive  than  water"  and  "Who  has 
the  greater  right  to  complain,  the  negro  or  the  In- 
dian?" In  his  arguments  he  was  always  clear  and 
logical  and  often  resorted  to  humorous  remarks, 
causing  great  merriment.  Throughout  his  life,  Lin- 
coln liked  to  argue  and  always  seemed  to  get  great 
pleasure  out  of  it.  He  was  greatly  pleased  as  Presi- 
dent whenever  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  prepare 
papers  that  called  for  the  presentation  of  arguments. 


64  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

At  the  age  of  eleven,  Abe  was  making  public 
speeches.  By  the  time  he  was  seventeen  he  was  a 
"stump  speaker"  of  no  mean  ability.  His  step- 
mother said  that  Abe  made  so  many  speeches  to  the 
men  in  the  fields  and  kept  them  from  their  work  so 
much  that  her  "husband  was  forced  to  break  it  up 
with  a  strong  hand."  Abe  delivered  so  many 
speeches  to  his  friends  and  companions  that  after  a 
while  it  was  a  common  saying  among  them  that  he 
liked  to  "hear  his  own  voice."  Again,  then,  Lincoln 
acquired  in  these  early  Indiana  schools  a  foundation 
for  oratory  and  debate  upon  which  he  built  so  well 
that  in  later  life  he  met  and  conquered  the  ablest 
of  all  debaters  of  his  day,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and 
delivered  an  oration,  the  Gettysburg  Address,  one 
of  the  greatest  masterpieces  in  the  English  language. 

Andrew  Crawford,  one  of  Lincoln's  Hoosier 
school  teachers,  taught  "manners"  in  his  school  in 
addition  to  the  customary  three  R's.  A  pupil  would 
retire  from  the  schoolroom  and  then  re-enter,  being 
received  at  the  door  by  another  pupil  who  conducted 
him  and  introduced  him  to  all  the  ladies  and  gentle- 
men in  the  room.  Lincoln  went  through  this  experi- 
ence time  and  again  and  we  do  not  doubt  but  that 
he  profited  by  it,  for  we  have  the  statements  of  the 
people  who  knew  him  as  a  youth  that  he  was  always 
thoughtful  and  courteous.  Mrs.  Josiah  Crawford 
said  that  Abe  was  a  sensitive  lad,  never  coming 
where  he  was  not  wanted  and  that  he  always  lifted 
his  hat  and  bowed  when  he  made  his  appearance. 


CHAPTER  VII 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION 

How  He  Secuked  It 

"There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough  hew  them  how  we  will." 

— Shakespeare. 

In  this  chapter  we  are  to  set  forth  the  efforts 
made  by  the  youthful  Lincoln  to  secure  an  education. 
In  doing  so,  we  shall  use  quotations  from  the  state- 
ments made  by  men  and  women  of  Indiana  who 
knew  Lincoln  during  his  boyhood  days.  We  are 
aware  of  the  fact  that  it  is  quite  possible  for  some 
of  these  people  to  have  made  exaggerated  state- 
ments about  Lincoln  especially  after  a  lapse  of  years. 
Some  of  the  statements  may  not  stand  the  withering 
fire  of  the  critics  but,  in  the  main,  the  author  be- 
lieves they  are  true  and  are  worth  reproducing. 

In  no  sense  can  it  ever  be  said  that  Lincoln's 
education  was  interrupted  by  his  schooling.  As  for 
schooling,  he  had  about  a  year  of  it  at  different 
times  under  at  least  three  different  teachers ;  but  as 
for  education,  his  whole  life  was  spent  in  acquiring 
it.  Lincoln's  schooling  was  but  a  foundation  upon 
which  he  built.  He  was  an  earnest  student,  a  con- 
stant reader ;  a  book  was  ever  his  companion.  Far 
into  the  night  he  would  sit  by  the  open  fire  place 
and  read  and  study  by  the  blaze  of  the  logs  his  own 
axe  had  split.  He  would  do  his  arithmetic  sums  on 
the  wooden  fire  shovel,  using  a  piece  of  charcoal  for 
a  pencil.  When  the  shovel  was  completely  filled  with 
figures  he  would  shave  them  off  with  his  jackknife 

65 


66  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

and  start  over  again.  The  walls  of  his  cabin  home 
were  covered  with  figures.  In  the  summer  time  he 
would  smooth  off  a  level  place  on  the  ground  and 
with  a  sharpened  stick  work  his  arithmetic  prob- 
lems there.    He  never  grew  tired  of  "home  work." 

He  would  take  a  book  to  bed  with  him  at  night 
and  stick  it  between  the  logs  of  the  wall  where  it 
would  be  handy  for  him  to  pick  up  at  the  first  peep 
of  day.  We  are  all  familiar  with  the  story  of  how 
a  borrowed  book  thus  treated  was  ruined  by  a  rain 
that  came  up  in  the  night.  This  was  Weems's  Life 
of  Washington,  which  Abe  had  borrowed  from  Jo- 
siah  Crawford.  The  story  has  been  given  all  kinds 
of  twists  and  slants  but  the  true  story  is  about  as 
follows,  told  by  William  Adams  of  Rockport,  In- 
diana, grandson  of  Josiah  Crawford  who  told  him 
the  story  time  and  again :  When  young  Lincoln  found 
that  the  rain  had  damaged  the  book  he  went  to 
Crawford  and  explained  the  matter  and  asked  him 
what  the  book  was  worth.  Crawford  replied,  "Well, 
Abe,  you  come  over  and  pull  fodder  a  couple  of  days 
and  we  will  call  the  accounts  even."1  Other  stories 
have  it  that  Crawford  drove  a  shrewd  bargain  with 
Lincoln  and  was  to  have  him  pull  fodder  for  three 
days.  Fortunately  we  have  Lincoln's  own  words  de- 
scribing the  incident  to  a  friend:  "At  the  close  of 
the  second  day  my  long  arms  had  stripped  away 
every  blade  off  old  Blue  Nose's  corn,  and  I  reckon  Cy 
ought  to  be  satisfied,  at  any  rate  I  am  but  I  think 
he  was  pretty  hard  on  me."  So  if  Crawford  really 
wished  to  get  three  days  work  out  of  Lincoln  he 
failed  because  his  corn  field  was  not  large  enough.2 

Young  Lincoln  had  formed  the  habit  of  taking 
a  book  with  him  to  the  fields  when  he  was  ploughing 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  67 

or  cultivating,  or  to  the  woods  when  he  was  cutting 
timber  or  mauling  rails.  He  had  solved  correctly 
the  right  use  of  leisure  time — he  read  and  studied. 
The  passages  in  the  books  that  appealed  to  him  most 
he  copied  and  later  he  reread  them  and  pondered 
over  them.3 

Speaking  of  Abe's  desire  for  an  education,  his 
stepmother,  in  an  interview  with  Herndon,  said: 
"I  induced  my  husband  to  permit  Abe  to  read  and 
study  at  home  as  well  as  at  school.  .  .  .  Abe  was  a 
dutiful  son  to  me  always.  We  took  particular  care 
when  he  was  reading  not  to  disturb  him,  but  we  let 
him  read  on  and  on  until  he  quit  of  his  own  accord."4 

Again  Mrs.  Lincoln  said  of  her  stepson:  "Abe 
read  diligently.  ...  He  read  every  book  he  could 
lay  his  hands  on;  and  when  he  came  across  a  pas- 
sage that  struck  him,  he  would  write  it  down  on 
boards,  if  he  had  no  paper,  and  keep  it  until  he  did 
get  paper.  Then  he  would  rewrite  it,  look  at  it,  re- 
peat it.  He  had  a  copy-book,  a  kind  of  scrap-book, 
in  which  he  put  down  all  things  and  thus  preserved 
them."5 

Captain  John  Lamar  of  Spencer  County,  Indiana, 
tells  a  story  that  one  day  he  and  his  father  were 
riding  to  mill  and  saw  on  the  way  a  boy  sitting  on 
the  top  of  an  old  stake-and-rider  fence  so  interested 
in  a  book  he  was  reading  that  he  did  not  notice  their 
approach.  His  father  turned  to  him  and  said: 
"John,  look  at  that  boy  yonder,  and  mark  my  words, 
he  will  make  a  smart  man  out  of  himself.  I  may 
not  see  it,  but  you'll  see  if  my  words  don't  come 
true."    That  boy  was  Abraham  Lincoln.6 

The  old  people  of  Spencer  and  adjoining  counties, 
who  remembered  Lincoln  in  his  youth,  have  made 


68 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


Pen   drawing    by    Miss    Constance   Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana, — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

Young  Lincoln  studying  at  the  end  of  the  corn  rows 


statements  similar  to  those  of  Captain  John  Lamar. 
They  remembered  him  as  a  studious  boy,  one  apart 
and  different  from  the  other  boys  of  his  time.  He 
was  eager  to  learn;  he  craved  an  education.  John 
Hanks  lived  with  the  Lincoln  family  for  four  years, 
from  1823  to  1827,  and  is  authority  for  the  follow- 
ing statement: 

"When  Abe  and  I  returned  to  the  house  from 
work  he  would  go  to  the  cupboard,  snatch  a  piece  of 
cornbread  and  sit  down  and  read.     We  grubbed, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  69 

plowed,  and  worked  together  barefooted  in  the  fields. 
Whenever  Abe  had  a  chance  in  the  field  while  at 
work,  or  at  the  house,  he  would  stop  and  read.  He 
kept  the  Bible  and  Aesop's  Fables  always  in  reach 
and  read  them  over  and  over  again."7 

Nathaniel  Grigsby  says :  "Lincoln  was  always  at 
school  quite  early  and  attended  to  his  studies  dili- 
gently. He  always  stood  at  the  head  of  his  class 
and  passed  the  rest  of  us  rapidly  in  his  studies.  He 
lost  no  time  at  home,  and  when  he  was  not  at  work 
he  was  at  his  books."8 

Speaking  of  Abe's  education,  Dennis  Hanks  said : 
"After  he  learned  to  write  his  name  he  was  scrawl- 
in*  it  everywhere.  Sometimes  he  would  write  it  in 
the  sand  down  by  the  crick  bank  and  leave  it 
there  till  the  waves  would  blot  it  out.  ...  He  read 
a  great  deal,  and  had  a  wonderful  memory — won- 
derful. Never  forgot  anything."9  Again  Hanks 
says  of  Lincoln :  "Seems  to  me  now  I  never  seen  Abe 
after  he  was  twelve  'at  he  didn't  have  a  book  in  his 
hands  or  in  his  pocket.  He'd  put  a  book  inside  his 
shirt  an'  fill  his  pants  pockets  with  corn  dodgers  an' 
go  off  to  plow  or  hoe.  When  noon  came  he'd  set 
under  a  tree  an'  read  an'  eat.  An'  when  he  come 
to  the  house  at  night,  he'd  tilt  a  cheer  back  by  the 
chimbley,  put  his  feet  on  the  rung,  an'  set  on  his 
back-bone  an'  read.  Aunt  Sairy  always  put  a  candle 
on  the  mantle-tree  piece  fur  him,  if  she  had  one. 
An'  as  like  as  not  Abe'd  eat  his  supper  thar,  takin' 
anything  she'd  give  him  that  he  could  gnaw  at  an' 
read  at  the  same  time.  .  .  .  Aunt  Sairy'd  never  let 
the  children  pester  him.  She  always  declared  Abe 
was  goin'  to  be  a  great  man  some  day,  an'  she  wasn't 
goin'  to  have  him  hendered."t0 


70  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

During  the  fall  and  winter  of  1826,  when  Lin- 
coln was  seventeen  years  old,  he  was  in  the  employ 
of  James  Taylor,  who  managed  the  ferry  across  the 
Ohio  River  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson  creek.  James 
Taylor  had  a  son,  Green  Taylor,  about  Lincoln's  age, 
with  whom  Lincoln  slept.  Many  years  later,  Cap- 
tain Green  B.  Taylor  stated  that  Lincoln  read  the 
books  in  their  library,  sitting  up  "far  into  the 
night."  1X 

As  much  as  Lincoln  liked  the  association  of  men 
and  boys  and  as  much  as  he  liked  to  take  part  in 
their  sports,  he  could  never  be  induced  to  leave  a 
new  book  until  he  had  read  it  through.  One  day 
Josiah  Crawford  saw  Lincoln  stretched  out  his  full 
length  on  the  floor  with  a  book  and  with  his  lower 
lip  "stuck  out"  as  it  always  was  when  he  was  in 
deep  study.  He  said  to  him:  "Abe,  what  are  you 
goin'  to  be?"  And  the  reply  came  promptly:  "I'm 
going  to  be  President,  Uncle  Joe."12 

One  evening  Lincoln  and  Miss  Robey,  to  whom 
he  was  paying  marked  attention,  were  sitting  on  the 
edge  of  a  boat  that  was  being  loaded  on  Anderson 
creek  with  produce  that  Allen  Gentry  and  Lincoln 
were  to  take  down  the  Mississippi  to  the  Southern 
market.  Later  that  lady,  who  married  Allen  Gen- 
try, related  the  following  conversation  that  took 
place  that  evening: 

"I  said  to  Abe  that  the  sun  was  doing  down.  He 
said  to  me  'that's  not  so ;  it  don't  really  go  down,  it 
seems  so.  The  earth  turns  from  west  to  east  and 
the  revolution  of  the  earth  carries  us  under;  we  do 
the  sinking,  as  you  call  it.  The  sun,  as  to  us,  is  com- 
paratively still ;  the  sun's  sinking  is  only  an  appear- 
ance.'   I  replied,  'Abe,  what  a  fool  you  are !'    I  know 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  71 

now  that  I  was  the  fool,  not  Lincoln.  I  am  now 
thoroughly  satisfied  that  he  knew  the  general  laws 
of  astronomy  and  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  He  was  better  read  then  than  the  world 
knows  or  is  likely  to  know  exactly.  No  man  could 
talk  to  me  as  he  did  that  night  unless  he  had  known 
something  of  geography  as  well  as  astronomy.  He 
often  commented  or  talked  to  me  about  what  he  had 
read, — seemed  to  read  it  out  of  the  book  as  he  went 
along.  He  was  the  learned  boy  among  us  unlearned 
folks.  He  took  great  pains  to  explain ;  could  do  it  so 
simply.     He  was  different  too."13 

Lincoln  learned  not  only  from  books  but  from 
everything  and  everybody  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact.  He  knew  that  real  knowledge — real  edu- 
cation— could  be  secured  from  any  man  who  could 
do  anything  well.  He  talked  to  men ;  he  asked  ques- 
tions ;  he  listened  to  arguments ;  he  was  inquisitive ; 
he  wanted  to  know  what  was  going  on  in  the  world 
about  him.  To  acquire  knowledge  was  his  passion. 
The  Lincoln  home  entertained  the  ministers  as  they 
came  for  the  monthly  meeting.  With  them  young 
Lincoln  conversed  and  from  them  gained  much  in- 
formation. 

Lincoln  would  not  hesitate  to  stop  his  work  and 
engage  a  stranger  in  conversation,  always  asking 
for  news.  On  one  occasion,  a  man  rode  up  to  the 
Lincoln  home  to  inquire  about  directions  and  so  anx- 
ious was  Abe  to  learn  the  news  of  his  section  of  the 
world  that  he  began  asking  questions  before  Thomas 
Lincoln  could  reply  to  him.  The  latter  turned  to 
Lincoln  and  rebuked  him,  but  this  did  not  silence 
the  inquisitive  youth  who  soon  plied  the  stranger 
with  more  questions  about  the  news.    Thomas  Lin- 


72  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

coin  swung  his  arm  backward  and  with  the  wide 
open  hand  struck  Abe  in  the  mouth,  rolling  him 
over  on  the  ground.  For  a  second  or  two  the  father 
had  a  chance  to  reply  to  the  stranger  but  that  was 
about  all  for  Abe  was  soon  on  his  feet  and,  at  a 
safe  distance  from  his  father,  continued  asking  the 
stranger  for  the  news.  This  episode  has  been  over- 
stressed  by  certain  of  the  Lincoln  biographers  to 
show  the  rudeness  of  Thomas  Lincoln  in  general 
and  to  lay  a  foundation  to  show  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln did  not  honor  or  respect  his  father. 

Dennis  Hanks  speaks  of  this  or  a  similar  situa- 
tion in  the  following  words :  "Sometimes  a  preacher, 
'r  a  circuit-ridin'  jedge  'r  lyyer,  'r  stump-speakin' 
polytician,  'r  a  school  teacher'd  come  along.  When 
one  o'  them  rode  up,  Tom'd  go  out  an*  say:  'Light, 
stranger/  like  it  was  polite  to  do.  Then  Abe'd  come 
lopin'  out  on  his  long  legs,  throw  one  over  the  top 
rail  and  begin  firm'  questions.  Tom'd  tell  him  to 
quit,  but  it  didn't  do  no  good,  so  Tom'd  have  to  bang 
him  on  the  side  o'  his  head  with  his  hat.  Abe'd  go 
off  a  spell  ...  an'  whistle  like  he  didn't  keer.  Tap 
thinks  it  ain't  polite  to  ask  folks  so  many  questions,' 
he'd  say.  'I  reckon  I  wasn't  born  to  be  polite,  Denny. 
Thar's  so  .  .  .  many  things  I  want  to  know.  An' 
how  else  am  I  goin'  to  git  to  know  'em?'  "14 

The  store  kept  by  William  Jones  at  Jonesboro 
and  later  at  Gentryville  and  the  blacksmith  shop  by 
John  Baldwin  in  Gentryville  were  gathering  places 
for  the  men  on  rainy  days,  during  the  evenings,  on 
Saturday  afternoons,  and  once  a  week  when  the  mail 
arrived  from  Rockport.  Here  young  Lincoln  was 
sure  to  be  found  and  here  he  took  part  in  the  various 
discussions — on  politics,  on  slavery,  on  religion,  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  73 

on  a  hundred  other  subjects.  He  often  entertained 
the  crowd  with  his  mimicry,  humor,  and  anecdotes, 
in  which  he  was  unexcelled.  He  was  especially  pro- 
ficient in  mimicking  the  peculiarities  of  voice  and 
manners  of  the  transient  ministers  who  preached  at 
the  Little  Pigeon  Creek  Church  and  was  never  want- 
ing for  an  audience  on  such  occasions.  But  let  it 
be  said  here  once  and  for  all  that  young  Lincoln 
never  made  light  of  the  Church  or  of  religion  as  has 
been  so  often  recorded  by  his  biographers  who  took 
his  humor  and  mimicry  for  infidelity  or  atheism. 

Mr.  Herndon  tells  a  story  of  an  amusing  inci- 
dent witnessed  by  Lincoln  in  the  Little  Pigeon  Creek 
Church,  which  Lincoln  often  repeated  in  later  years : 

"The  meeting  house  was  located  in  the  woods  a 
mile  and  a  half  from  our  house  and  some  distance 
from  any  other  residence.  Regular  services  were 
held  only  once  each  month.  The  preacher  on  this 
occasion  was  an  old-line  Baptist,  and  was  dressed 
in  coarse  linen  pantaloons  and  shirt  of  the  same 
material.  The  trousers  were  manufactured  after 
the  old-fashioned  style,  with  baggy  legs  and  flaps  in 
front,  commonly  spoken  of  as  "barn  doors,"  which 
were  made  to  attach  to  the  frame  without  the  aid 
of  suspenders.  A  single  button  held  his  shirt  in 
position,  and  that  was  at  the  collar.  He  arose  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  a  loud  voice  announced  his  text :  "I  am 
the  Christ  whom  I  shall  represent  today."  About 
this  time  a  little  blue  lizard  ran  up  underneath  his 
roomy  pantaloons,  and  the  old  preacher  not  wishing 
to  interrupt  the  steady  flow  of  his  sermon  slapped 
away  on  his  legs,  expecting  to  arrest  the  intruder, 
but  his  efforts  were  unavailing  and  the  little  fellow 
kept  ascending  higher  and  higher.    Continuing  the 


74  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

sermon  the  preacher  slyly  loosened  the  button  which 
held  the  waistband  of  his  pantaloons,  and  with  a 
kick  off  came  the  easy  fitting  garment.  Meanwhile 
Mr.  Lizard  had  passed  the  equatorial  line  and  was 
exploring  the  part  of  the  preacher's  anatomy  which 
lay  underneath  the  back  of  his  shirt.  Things  by 
this  time  were  growing  interesting,  but  the  sermon 
kept  grinding  on.  The  next  movement  on  the  part 
of  the  preacher  was  for  the  collar  button,  and  with 
one  sweep  of  his  arm  off  came  the  tow  linen  shirt. 
The  congregation  sat  for  an  instant  as  if  dazed.  At 
length  an  old  sister  in  the  rear  of  the  room  rose  up 
and  glancing  at  the  excited  object  in  the  pulpit 
shouted  at  the  top  of  her  voice:  "If  you  represent 
Christ  then  I  am  done  with  the  Bible."1'5 

Each  week  the  postman  brought  to  Mr.  Jones  the 
Louisville  Journal  which  was  edited  by  George  D. 
Prentice,  a  scholarly  writer.  As  Abe  was  the  best 
reader,  he  read  articles  from  the  paper  to  the  as- 
sembled crowd.  He  was  often  called  upon  to  ex- 
plain or  make  clear  portions  of  articles  he  read. 
Nathaniel  Grigsby  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  whenever  Lincoln  appeared  "the  boys  would 
gather  and  cluster  around  him  to  hear  him  talk. 
He  was  figurative  in  his  speeches,  talks,  and  conver- 
sations. He  argued  much  from  analogy,  and  ex- 
plained things,  hard  for  us  to  understand,  by  stories, 
maxims,  tales,  and  figures.  He  would  point  out  his 
lessons  or  ideas  by  some  story  that  was  plain  and 
near  to  us  in  order  that  we  might  instantly  see  the 
force  and  bearing  of  what  he  said."16  This  Indiana 
training  remained  with  Lincoln,  for  all  through  his 
life  he  continued  to  use  stories,  illustrations,  and 
figures  of  speech  to  bring  out  a  point.    He  did  this 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  75 

in  his  speeches,  his  letters,  and  his  telegrams.  His 
stories  were  never  told  as  just  mere  stories;  they 
had  something  more  back  of  them.17 

Young  Lincoln's  talks,  speeches,  and  sermons 
were  of  a  varied  nature  and  were  made  to  fit  his 
audiences.  He  could  successfully  mimic  the  minis- 
ter or  deliver  in  all  seriousness  a  campaign  speech  or 
an  address  of  an  attorney  before  the  jury.  His 
favorite  performance  was  the  repetition  of  the  Sun- 
day sermon  to  the  men  and  boys  in  the  fields  at  work 
on  Monday.  He  would  likewise  deliver  the  Sunday 
sermon  to  his  stepmother  whenever  she  was  unable 
to  attend  church.  On  such  occasions,  the  Lincoln 
household  listened  to  Abe  and  it  was  the  general 
opinion  that  he  could  do  better  than  the  preacher — 
at  least  Mrs.  Lincoln  said  that  she  got  more  out  of 
his  sermons.  Lincoln's  retentive  power  was  so  great 
that  he  was  able  to  repeat  text  and  sermon  in  almost 
the  identical  words  of  the  minister. 

In  a  conversation  with  Dennis  Hanks,  Mr.  Hern- 
don  asked  him  how  it  came  that  he  and  Abe  learned 
so  much  in  Indiana.  Hanks  replied  in  substance  as 
follows:  "We  learned  by  sight,  scent,  and  hearing. 
We  heard  all  that  was  said,  and  talked  over  and  over 
the  questions  heard;  wore  them  slick,  greasy,  and 
threadbare.  Went  to  political  and  other  speeches 
and  gatherings,  as  you  do  now:  we  would  hear  all 
sides  and  opinions,  talk  them  over,  discuss  them, 
agreeing  or  diagreeing.  Abe,  as  I  said  before,  was 
originally  a  Democrat  after  the  order  of  Jackson, 
so  was  his  father,  so  we  all  were.  ...  He  preached, 
made  speeches,  read  for  us,  explained  to  us,  etc.  .  .  . 
Abe  was  a  cheerful  boy,  a  witty  boy,  was  humorous 
always;  sometimes  would  get  sad,  not  very  often. 


76  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

.  .  .  Lincoln  would  frequently  make  political  and 
other  speeches  to  the  boys:  he  was  calm,  logical, 
and  clear  always.  He  attended  trials,  went  to  court 
always,  read  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana,  dated 
1824,  heard  law  speeches,  and  listened  to  law  trials, 
etc.  ...  He  was  always  reading,  scribbling,  writ- 
ing, ciphering,  writing  poetry,  and  the  like.  ...  In 
Gentry ville  .  .  .  Lincoln  would  go  and  tell  his  jokes 
and  stories,  etc.,  and  was  so  odd,  original,  and  hu- 
morous and  witty,  that  all  the  people  in  town  would 
gather  around  him.  He  would  keep  them  till  mid- 
night. I  would  get  tired,  want  to  go  home,  cuss  Abe 
most  heartily.  Abe  was  a  good  talker,  a  good 
reader,  and  was  a  kind  of  newsboy."18 

Young  Lincoln's  favorite  study  was  history  or 
perhaps  we  had  better  say  the  social  sciences.  He 
realized,  although  it  may  not  have  been  entirely 
clear  to  him,  that  history  is  more  than  a  mere  record 
of  past  events;  that  it  "is  a  social  science  that  re- 
cords, portrays,  and  interprets  conditions,  institu- 
tions, and  events  relative  to  the  life  of  a  people,  a 
nation,  or  a  state."  Besides  history,  his  major  sub- 
ject, he  studied  theology,  literature,  and  athletics. 
But  he  did  not  study  them  in  college.  His  history 
he  secured  from  the  splendid  list  of  books  set  forth 
in  the  following  chapter,  from  readings  from  the 
weekly  newspapers,  and  from  his  conversations  with 
the  enlightened  men  of  his  community.  His  litera- 
ture came  from  association  with  some  of  the  most 
cultured  people  found  anywhere  in  the  West — the 
pioneer  settlers  of  the  British  colony.  In  their 
homes,  Lincoln  had  a  chance  to  read  the  productions 
of  the  great  English  writers — Moore,  Campbell, 
Scott,  Burns,  and  others.    His  athletics  was  secured 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  77 

with  the  ax  and  the  maul  and  in  this  as  in  history, 
Bible,  and  literature  he  was  an  apt  scholar.  His 
gym  was  the  forest  about  him  just  as  his  laboratory 
for  the  social  sciences  was  the  country  for  a  radius 
of  many  miles  around  his  cabin  home — a  country 
filled  with  many  excellent  and  cultured  people. 

Dr.  John  Putnam  Gulliver  of  Norwich,  Connecti- 
cut, in  a  conversation  with  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1860 
asked  him  how  he  explains  his  power  of  "putting 
things"  in  his  public  speeches.  To  this  inquiry  Lin- 
coln replied :  "I  can  say  this,  that  among  my  earliest 
recollections  I  remember  how,  when  a  mere  child, 
I  used  to  get  irritated  when  anybody  talked  to  me 
in  a  way  I  could  not  understand.  I  don't  think  I 
ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my  life.  But  that 
always  disturbed  my  temper,  and  has  ever  since. 
I  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bedroom  after 
hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening  with  my 
father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night 
walking  up  and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what 
was  the  exact  meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark 
sayings.  I  could  not  sleep,  thought  I  often  tried  to, 
when  I  got  on  such  a  hunt  after  an  idea,  until  I  had 
caught  it;  and  when  I  thought  I  had  got  it,  I  was 
not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over, 
until  I  had  put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I 
thought,  for  any  boy  I  knew  to  comprehend.  This 
was  a  kind  of  passion  with  me,  and  it  has  stuck  by 
me ;  for  I  am  never  easy  now,  when  I  am  handling  a 
thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it  north,  and  bounded 
it  south,  and  bounded  it  east,  and  bounded  it  west. 
Perhaps  that  accounts  for  the  characteristic  you  ob- 
serve in  my  speeches,  though  I  never  put  the  two 
things  together  before."19 


78  lincoln  the  hoosier 

Lincoln  Becomes  Interested  in  Law 

Abraham  Lincoln  became  interested  in  law  and 
law  courts  in  a  very  singular  way.  When  he  was 
seventeen  he  was  a  ferryman  at  Anderson  creek  on 
the  Indiana  side  of  the  Ohio  river.  Just  opposite, 
on  the  Kentucky  side,  two  brothers,  John  and  Ben- 
jamin Dill,  were  licensed  ferrymen.  Quite  often 
young  Lincoln  would  hear  the  ferry  bell  ring  on  the 
Kentucky  side,  and  after  making  sure  that  the  Dill 
brothers  were  not  going  to  answer  it,  would  row 
across  the  river  and  give  service  to  the  passengers. 
On  one  occasion  when  he  thus  answered  the  ferry 
bell,  he  was  surprised  to  find  himself  confronted 
with  John  and  Benjamin  Dill.  He  was  taken  before 
the  local  'squire,  Samuel  Pate,  who  lived  a  mile  dis- 
tant down  the  river.  The  Dill  brothers  stated  the 
charges  against  Lincoln  who  replied  to  them  upon 
the  request  of  the  'squire.  Lincoln  stated  that  he 
had  rowed  passengers  from  the  Kentucky  side  to  the 
Indiana  side  of  the  Ohio  river  but  only  after  having 
heard  the  ferry  bell  ring  time  and  again  without 
anyone  answering  it.  He  informed  the  'squire  that 
he  did  not  know  that  he  was  trespassing  upon  the 
rights  of  the  Dill  brothers  but  on  the  contrary, 
thought  he  was  doing  them  a  favor  by  helping  the 
passengers  across  the  river  when  they  were  unable 
to  attend  to  the  business.  He  furthermore  said 
that  had  he  known  he  was  doing  a  wrong  he  would 
not  have  done  it  and  that  he  would  not  do  so  again. 
His  honesty  and  sincerity  so  impressed  the  'squire 
that  the  case  was  dismissed.  Another  account  has 
it  that  the  Dill  brothers  had  young  Lincoln  arrested 
charged  with  operating  a  ferry  without  a  license, 
that  Lincoln  defended  himself  and  was  acquitted  by 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  79 

the  justice  as  he  showed  that  he  never  ferried  any 
men  across  the  Ohio  but  only  to  the  middle  of  the 
stream  to  board  a  steamer,  and  that  this  did  not  re- 
quire him  to  have  a  Kentucky  license.  We  know  that 
Lincoln  did  ferry  men  to  the  middle  of  the  Ohio  to 
board  a  steamer  for  we  have  that  statement  from  his 
own  lips  told  to  his  Cabinet  in  the  story  in  which  he 
explained  how  he  had  earned  his  first  dollar.  At 
any  rate  the  case  is  recorded  in  the  Kentucky  courts 
and  is  the  first  law  case  in  which  we  find  the  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Mr.  Pate  became  interested 
in  Lincoln  and  invited  him  to  attend  a  sitting  of  his 
court.  This  Lincoln  did  and  continued  to  do  as  long 
as  he  worked  as  ferryman  on  Anderson  creek.  Thus, 
perhaps,  Abraham  Lincoln  got  his  first  lesson  in 
law  and  law  court.  But  it  was  not  his  last  for 
he  kept  up  his  interest  in  law  upon  his  return  home 
from  Anderson  creek.  How  he  walked  to  Rockport 
and  Boonville  to  hear  law  cases  and  how  Judge  Pit- 
cher and  Breckenridge  influenced  him  have  been 
told  in  another  connection.20 

We  are  indebted  to  Joseph  Gentry  for  the  story 
of  Lincoln's  first  public  address,  which  in  substance 
is  as  follows:  Two  neighbors  had  quarreled  over 
the  possession  of  a  goose  and  had  taken  the  matter 
into  court.  The  trial  was  held  in  the  schoolhouse 
about  a  mile  distant  from  the  Lincoln  home.  The 
entire  countryside  was  present  and  of  course  among 
them  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  then  seventeen  years 
of  age.  After  the  crowd  had  assembled  and  before 
the  arrival  of  the  justice  and  the  lawyers,  young 
Lincoln  arose  and  addressed  the  parties  to  the  law 
suit,  their  witnesses,  and  the  crowd  in  general.  He 
showed  them  how  ridiculous  it   was   for  two   old 


80  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

friends  and  neighbors  to  quarrel  over  "an  old  grey- 
goose  worth  about  two  bits,"  saying  to  them  that  no 
matter  which  one  won  the  suit  they  both  would 
lose — lose  the  friendship  of  each  other  and  cause 
the  neighborhood  to  be  split  up  by  taking  sides.  In 
a  short  time  he  had  the  litigants  laughing  and  shak- 
ing hands  and  before  the  justice  arrived  the  case 
was  over  and  all  had  departed  as  friends. 

Throughout  his  life  Lincoln  never  dispensed  with 
the  manner  of  speech  in  which  he  addressed  the 
Spencer  County  crowd  in  the  "Gray  Goose  Case." 
His  fine  reasoning  and  above  all  his  wit  were  ever 
with  him  and  were  used  to  placate  and  harmonize. 
In  his  Cincinnati  speech  he  addressed  his  friends 
across  the  river.  In  his  first  inaugural  address  he 
pleaded  again,  just  as  he  did  thirty-five  years  before 
in  the  log  schoolhouse  in  Southern  Indiana  for  two 
old  friends  to  remain  friends:  "You  of  the  North 
and  you  of  the  South,  you  cannot  fight  always,  and 
after  you  have  fought  with  much  loss  on  both  sides 
with  no  gain  .  .  .  can  aliens  make  treaties  easier 
than  friends  can  make  laws?" 

It  has  been  pointed  out  time  and  again  by  Lin- 
coln biographers  that  Lincoln  in  Illinois  worked  out 
a  code  of  ethics  for  lawyers  in  which  he  shows  that 
it  should  be  the  duty  of  lawyers  to  persuade  people 
to  compromise  their  differences,  stating  that  the 
winner  of  a  law  suit  was  usually  a  loser — "in  fees, 
expenses  and  waste  of  time."  Along  this  line  Lin- 
coln also  said  that  "as  a  peacemaker  the  lawyer  has 
a  superior  opportunity  of  being  a  good  man.  There 
will  still  be  business  enough."21 

But  let  us  point  out  that  Lincoln  had  already 
worked  out  in  Indiana  this  code  of  ethics  and  had 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EDUCATION  81 

given  a  real  illustration  of  his  ability  as  a  peace- 
maker when  in  the  "Gray  Goose  Case"  he  was  suc- 
cessful in  getting  two  quarreling  neighbors  to  settle 
their  difficulties  out  of  court.  In  his  Illinois  code, 
Lincoln  drew  upon  and  enlarged  his  Indiana  code. 
In  fact,  the  very  sentiment  that  he  practiced  in  the 
"Gray  Goose  Case"  is  found  in  words  in  his  Illinois 
code.  Then,  too,  young  Lincoln  as  a  judge,  umpire, 
and  arbiter  of  the  quarrels  among  his  boyhood  asso- 
ciates in  Indiana  had  ample  opportunity  to  know 
that  the  "peacemaker  has  a  superior  opportunity  of 
being  a  good  man." 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ 

The  Books  Listed 

"The  reading  of  many  books  gives  pleasure, 
But  the  careful  study  of  a  few  profits  most." 

— J.  L.  Spalding. 

During  his  sessions  of  school  in  Indiana,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  read,  or  had  read  to  him,  the  following 
books : 

Webster's  "Old  Blue  Back"  Speller. 

Dillworth's  A  Netv  Guide  to  the  English  Tongue. 

Pike's  Arithmetic. 

Murray's  English  Reader. 

Barclay's  Dictionary. 

The  Kentucky  Perceptor. 

During  his  life  in  Indiana,  Lincoln  read  the  fol- 
lowing books : 
The  Bible. 

Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress. 
Aesop's  Fables. 
Arabian  Nights. 
De  Foe's  Robinson  Crusoe. 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington. 
Weems's  Life  of  Marion. 
Ramsay's  Life  of  Washington. 
A  History  of  the  United  States. 
Speeches  of  Henry  Clay. 
Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

82 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ  83 

Cooper's  Leather  Stocking  Tales. 

Riley's  Narrative  of  the  Loss  of  the  Brig  Com- 
merce. 
Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana. 
Burns's  Poems. 
Sinbad  the  Sailor. 
Scott's  Lessons  in  Elocution. 
Shakespeare's  Poems. 
Law  Books. 

We  are  satisfied  that  this  list  does  not  include 
all  the  books  read  by  Lincoln.  We  have  his  own 
words  for  it  that  he  read  all  the  books  that  he  could 
get  hold  of  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  of  his 
home,  but,  of  course,  we  know  that  we  are  not  to 
take  this  too  literally.  We  have  good  evidence  that 
he  read  and  studied  the  above  books ;  they  constitute 
a  good  library.  Since  we  are  to  deal  at  length  with 
the  influence  of  the  most  important  of  these  books 
upon  Lincoln,  we  can  say  but  a  word  about  the 
others. 

In  his  last  term  of  school,  Lincoln  used  Lindley 
Murray's  English  Reader  which  contained  both 
prose  and  verse.  In  later  years  Mr.  Lincoln  told  his 
law  partner,  Herndon,  that  this  "was  the  greatest 
and  most  useful  book  that  could  be  put  in  the  hands 
of  a  child  at  school."1 

We  do  not  know  how  Lincoln  came  in  possession 
of  Barclay's  Dictionary,  but  his  stepmother  still  had 
the  book  in  1865  when  Herndon  visited  her.  On  tho 
fly  leaf  was  Lincoln's  name  in  his  own  handwriting.  - 
Dillworth's  A  New  Guide  to  the  English  Tongue, 
like  Webster's  "Old  Blue  Back,"  was  a  spelling  book 


84  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

and  a  reading  book  combined,  containing  a  number 
of  fables.3  So  familiar  was  Lincoln  with  Pilgrim's 
Progress  that  he  could  repeat  portions  of  this  great 
English  classic  from  memory.  In  Robinon  Crusoe 
he  came  in  contact  with  "a  masterpiece  of  clear 
statement."  At  the  home  of  David  Turnham  young 
Lincoln  read  and  re-read  two  books  of  which  he  was 
very  fond — Sinbad  the  Sailor  and  Scott's  Lessons 
in  Elocution.4  It  was  there  also  that  he  read  the 
Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana. 

Dennis  Hanks  says  of  Lincoln :  "  'Denny,'  he'd 
say,  'the  things  I  want  to  know  is  in  books.  My 
best  friend's  the  man  who'll  git  me  one.'  Well,  books 
wasn't  so  plenty  as  wild-cats,  but  I  got  him  one  by 
cuttin'  a  few  cords  o'  wood.  It  had  a  lot  o'  yarns 
in  it.  One  I  ricollect  was  about  a  feller  that  got 
near  some  darned  fool  rocks,  'at  drawed  all  the 
nails  out  o'  his  boat  an'  he  got  a  duckin'.  .  .  .  Abe'd 
lay  on  his  stummick  by  the  fire,  an'  read  out  loud  to 
me  'n'  Aunt  Sairy,  an'  we'd  laugh  when  he  did.  .  .  . 
I  reckon  Abe  read  that  book  a  dozen  times,  an' 
knowed  them  yarns  by  heart."5  This  book  was  The 
Arabian  Nights.  Hanks  also  says  that  young  Lin- 
coln learned  Henry  Clay's  speeches  by  heart.6 
Browne  also  is  the  authority  that  Lincoln  read  the 
Life  of  Henry  Clay  and  that  this  book,  no  doubt, 
helped  to  make  him  a  follower  of  that  great  Whig 
leader  although  Lincoln  was  raised  a  Democrat  and 
lived  among  Democrats.7 

Hill  says  that  among  young  Lincoln's  favorite 
books  were  Shakespeare's  plays.8  To  support  this 
statement  we  have  the  following  contemporary  evi- 
dence: The  John  A.  Breckenridge  family  lived  on 
a  farm  not  far  from  Boonville  and  about  twenty 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ       85 

miles  from  Lincoln's  home.  Lincoln  often  walked 
to  the  Breckenridge  home  to  read  and  study  his  law 
books.  Sometimes  he  would  stay  all  day  and  all 
night  reading  law.  One  of  his  favorite  reading 
places  was  a  stump  in  the  yard  which  the  Brecken- 
ridge family  called  the  "Lincoln  Stump."  Wesley 
Hall,  a  boyhood  friend  of  Lincoln,  said  that  Abe 
read  Shakespeare  at  the  home  of  Breckenridge  and 
that  he  had  heard  him  recite  selections  from  that 
author.  When  we  take  up  for  discussion  Lincoln's 
educational  environment  and  discuss  the  British 
Settlement  additional  evidence  will  be  produced  to 
show  that  Lincoln  did  read  English  prose  and 
poetry.  Arnold  says  that  Lincoln  read  Burns's 
poems  and  was  familiar  with  them. 

The  following  is  another  bit  of  evidence  showing 
the  kind  of  books  young  Lincoln  read:  Four  miles 
from  Lincoln's  home  lived  a  Mr.  Hall,  a  Kentuckian, 
who  had  moved  to  Spencer  County  some  time  after 
the  Lincolns  came  there.  Mr.  Hall  operated  a  tan- 
yard  where  he  prepared  leather  for  the  Southern 
markets.  At  certain  times  of  the  year  he  employed 
a  number  of  men  in  his  tanyard,  among  them 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  son,  Abraham.  Mr.  Hall's  son, 
Wesley,  was  two  years  younger  than  his  boyhood 
friend,  Abraham  Lincoln.  Rev.  Murr,  who  carried 
on  interviews  with  Wesley  Hall,  tells  a  story  re- 
lated to  him  by  Hall  that  throws  light  upon  the  Lin- 
coln home  life.  According  to  the  story,  young  Hall 
had  been  sent  to  the  mill  beyond  Gentryville  to  have 
corn  ground  into  grist.  He  had  to  "wait  his  turn" 
and  before  he  could  start  home  a  snow  storm  arose. 
We  know  that  the  old  horse  grist  mill  ground  "ex- 
ceeding slow"  for  we  have  young  Lincoln's  witti- 


86  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

cism  for  it  that  "his  hound  pup  could  eat  all  the 
meal  it  would  grind  in  a  day  and  then  bawl  for  his 
supper."  Fearing  to  return  home,  Wesley  stayed 
all  night  at  the  Lincoln  home  and  in  his  conversa- 
tion with  Rev.  Murr  described  his  evening  there. 
He  had  a  good  supper  of  cakes,  baked  potatoes,  and 
fried  bacon.  After  supper  Abraham  read  to  the 
family  until  bedtime  from  the  Life  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.9 

Not  only  did  Abraham  Lincoln  read  the  best 
books  but  he  also  had  access  to  current  literature. 
During  all  of  his  life  in  Indiana  a  newspaper,  The 
Weekly  Western  Sun  and  General  Advertiser,  was 
published  in  Vincennes,  to  which  paper  Judge  Pit- 
cher was  a  subscriber.  In  New  Harmony  was  pub- 
lished The  Gazette  from  1825  to  1828  and  The  Dis- 
seminator from  1828  to  1829.  During  these  years 
New  Harmony  was  nationally  and  internationally 
known  on  account  of  the  cultured  people  who  lived 
there ;  there  was  published  in  Evansville  from  1821 
to  1825  The  Evansville  Gazette;  there  was  published 
in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  The  Louisville  Journal. 
William  Jones  of  Gentryville  took  this  paper  and 
young  Lincoln  was  a  regular  reader  of  it.  Mr.  Jones 
also  took  the  Terre  Haute  Register  as  is  shown  by 
the  mailing  list  of  that  paper  as  furnished  by  Mrs. 
S.  C.  Hughes,  Secretary  of  the  Vigo  County  Histor- 
ical Society  of  Terre  Haute,  Indiana.10  We  know 
also  that  Lincoln  borrowed  and  read  "Uncle  Wood's" 
temperance  paper. 

Those  writers  and  biographers  of  Lincoln  who 
seem  to  wish  to  make  it  appear  that  he  was  poorly 
equipped  intellectually  when  he  moved  from  Indiana 
to  Illinois  may  well  be  staggered  by  their  own  state- 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ       87 

merits,  for  they  serve  to  make  Lincoln  poorly 
equipped  intellectually  when  he  left  Illinois  for 
Washington.  As  a  lawyer  in  Illinois  Lincoln  read 
very  few  books,  not  because  he  did  not  have  access 
to  them,  for  his  law  partner,  Herndon,  had  a  fair 
library.  Barton  states  that  Lincoln  was  not  only 
not  a  great  reader  of  books  in  Illinois  but  that  he 
did  not  buy  books.11 

Mr.  Gibson  W.  Harris,  a  student  in  Lincoln's  law 
office,  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  Lincoln 
read  but  little  at  the  office  and  that  there  was  not 
"much  burning  of  the  midnight  oil  at  his  home."12 
Lincoln,  himself,  once  said  that  he  had  never  read 
a  law  book  through.13 

David  Davis,  later  member  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  and  United  States  Senator  from 
Illinois,  who  rode  the  Illinois  circuit  with  Lincoln, 
says  of  him:  ".  .  .  He  read  law  books  but  little,  ex- 
cept when  the  cause  in  hand  made  it  necessary-  .  -"14 
What  reading  Lincoln  did  while  traveling  on  the 
circuit  was  mainly  from  school  books  that  he  took 
with  him  and  from  light  literature.  He  read  little 
but  thought  much.  It  is  quite  probable  that  Lincoln 
read  more  books  in  Indiana  than  he  did  in  Illinois. 

The  Influence  of  Books  Upon  Lincoln — 
The  Bible 

So  important,  then,  are  the  books  that  he  read 
during  his  formative  and  adolescent  periods  in  In- 
diana that  it  is  worth  while  to  make  a  detailed  study 
of  a  few  of  them  to  see  how  they  influenced  the 
formation  of  his  character. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  Bible  and  where  is  there 
a  better  book  upon  which  to  build  the  foundation  for 


88  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

a  life!  The  Bible  together  with  Pilgrim's  Progress 
and  Aesop's  Fables  constituted  the  library  of  the 
Lincolns  when  they  moved  from  Kentucky  to  In- 
diana in  1816.  Nancy  Lincoln  read  the  Bible  to 
Sarah  and  Abraham  while  they  were  mere  children 
at  her  knee.  We  have  the  statement  from  Lincoln's 
associates  that  as  a  boy  he  spent  much  time  reading 
the  Bible.  He  pored  over  the  Sacred  Book  until  it 
became  a  part  of  his  being.  He  committed  to  mem- 
ory many  sections  of  it  and  often  repeated  them  to 
the  men  and  boys  about.  He  was  learning  God's 
commandments  that  he  might  be  able  to  keep  them 
as  he  was  requested  to  do  by  his  dying  mother.  His 
speeches,  messages,  and  state  papers  show  that  he 
knew  the  Bible.  The  London  Times  pronounced 
Lincoln  a  seer,  stating  that  his  Second  Inaugural 
Address  was  of  such  a  nature  that  it  might  have 
been  a  production  of  one  of  the  prophets  of  old. 

That  the  Bible  was  used  as  a  textbook  in  school 
in  Indiana  by  young  Lincoln  we  can  verify  by  a 
story  from  his  own  lips.  Senator  Henderson  of 
Missouri  called  upon  President  Lincoln  at  the  White 
House  some  months  before  the  Emancipation  Proc- 
lamation was  issued.  The  President  told  the  Sen- 
ator that  he  was  being  subjected  to  great  pressure 
from  the  abolitionists,  especially  from  Charles  Sum- 
ner, Henry  Wilson,  and  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who  were 
urging  him  to  free  the  slaves.  President  Lincoln 
then  related  the  following  story  to  Senator  Hender- 
son who  told  it  to  former  Vice-President  Adlai  E. 
Stevenson  who  has  since  repeated  it: 

"Sumner  and  Stevens  and  Wilson  simply  haunt 
me.  They  haunt  me  with  their  importunities  for  a 
proclamation  of  emancipation.    Wherever  I  go,  and 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ  89 

whatever  way  I  turn,  they  are  on  my  trail.  And 
still  in  my  heart  I  have  the  deep  conviction  that  the 
hour  has  not  yet  come. 

"The  only  schooling  I  ever  had,  Henderson,  was 
in  a  log  schoolhouse  when  reading  books  and  gram- 
mars were  unknown.  .  .  .  Our  reading  was  done 
from  the  Scriptures,  and  we  stood  up  in  a  long  line 
and  read  in  turn  from  the  Bible.  Our  lesson  one 
day  was  the  story  of  the  faithful  Israelites  who 
were  thrown  into  the  fiery  furnace  and  delivered  by 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  without  so  much  as  the  smell 
of  fire  upon  their  garments.  It  fell  to  one  little  fel- 
low to  read  the  verse  in  which  occurred,  for  the  first 
time,  the  name  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed- 
nego. 

"Little  Bud  stumbled  on  Shadrach,  floundered  on 
Meshach,  and  went  all  to  pieces  on  Abed-nego.  In- 
stantly the  hand  of  the  master  dealt  him  a  cuff  on 
the  side  of  the  head  and  left  him,  wailing  and  blub- 
bering, as  the  next  boy  in  line  took  up  the  reading. 
But  before  the  girl  at  the  end  of  the  line  had  done 
reading,  he  had  subsided  into  sniffles  and  finally 
became  quiet.  His  blunder  and  disgrace  were  for- 
gotten by  the  class  until  his  turn  was  approaching  to 
read  again.  Then,  like  a  thunder-clap  out  of  a  clear 
sky,  he  set  up  a  wail  that  alarmed  the  master,  who 
with  rather  unusual  gentleness  inquired,  'What's  the 
matter  now?' 

"The  little  boy  pointed  with  shaking  finger  to  the 
verse  which  in  a  few  moments  he  would  be  expected 
to  read,  and  to  the  three  proper  names  which  it  con- 
tained,— 

"  'Look,  master/  he  cried,  'there  comes  them 
same  three  fellers  again !'  " 


90  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

As  Lincoln  told  the  story  he  walked  to  the  win- 
dow overlooking  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  and  beckon- 
ing Senator  Henderson  to  stand  beside  him,  pointed 
his  finger  at  three  men  who  were  then  crossing  the 
street  to  the  White  House — Charles  Sumner,  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  and  Henry  Wilson. 

Webster's  "Blue  Back  Speller" 
Noah  Webster's  Elementary  Spelling  Book,  the 
"Old  Blue  Back  Speller,"  was  the  one  great  textbook 
used  in  the  pioneer  schools.  Lincoln,  like  Horace 
Greeley,  became  a  famous  speller  and  was  master 
of  the  "Old  Blue  Back."  But  that  speller  was  more 
than  a  speller;  it  was  also  a  reader.  Interspersed 
among  the  spelling  words  were  sentences  to  be  read. 
We  doubt  not  that  Lincoln  read  and  re-read  every 
sentence  in  the  book.  We  have  selected,  and  set 
forth  in  the  appendix,  a  few  of  those  that  we  believe 
Lincoln  might  have  pondered  over  and  that  unques- 
tionably influenced  him. 

Aesop's  Fables 
Aesop's  Fables  was  a  great  favorite  with  young 
Lincoln.  In  his  boyhood  days  he  was  fond  of  illus- 
trating his  arguments  and  in  order  to  do  so  drew 
heavily  upon  the  Fables  that  gave  him  such  a  vast 
store  of  knowledge  of  character  and  life.  Dennis 
Hanks  tells  how  Abe  would  lie  down  in  front  of  the 
fire  with  this  book  in  front  of  him  and  read  to  the 
household.  He  not  only  read  the  Fables  but  com- 
mitted them  to  memory  and  it  is  said  that  he  knew 
the  entire  book  by  heart.  Speaking  of  Aesop's 
Fables,  Dennis  Hanks  says:  "He  got  a  little  book 
o'  fables  some'ers.  I  reckon  it  was  them  stories  he 
read  that  give  him  so  many  yarns  to  tell.    I  asked 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ       91 

him  onct  after  he'd  gone  to  lawin'  and  could  make 
a  jury  laugh  or  cry  by  firm'  a  yarn  at  'em: 

"  'Abe/  sez  I,  'whar  did  you  git  so  blamed  many 
lies?'  An'  he'd  always  say,  'Denny,  when  a  story 
l'arns  you  a  good  lesson,  it  ain't  no  lie.  God  tells 
truths  in  parables.  They're  easier  fur  common 
folks  to  understand  an'  ricollect.'  His  stories  were 
like  that.  .  .  ,"15 

Time  and  again  throughout  his  later  life  he  drew 
upon  the  philosophy,  the  parables,  and  the  figures 
of  speech  of  the  Fables  to  drive  home  a  point  he 
was  making.  A  good  example  of  this  is  shown  in 
his  fight  to  get  the  Whigs  of  Illinois  to  accept  the 
convention  system  which  the  Democrats  had  already 
adopted.  The  Whigs  did  not  like  the  system  and 
would  have  none  of  it,  but  the  Democrats  were  using 
it  with  great  success  and  Lincoln,  setting  aside  all 
question  of  right  and  wrong,  argued  that  in  self- 
defense  the  Whigs  must  adopt  it.  He  said:  "That 
union  is  strength,  is  a  truth  that  has  been  known 
in  all  ages  of  the  world.  That  great  fabulist  and 
philosopher,  Aesop,  illustrated  it  by  his  fable  of  the 
bundle  of  sticks;  and  He  whose  wisdom  surpasses 
that  of  all  philosophers  has  declared  that  'a  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.'  "  Here  we  see 
that  two  of  the  three  books  (the  third  being  Pil- 
grim's Progress)  that  were  in  the  Lincoln  home  in 
Indiana — Aesop's  Fables  and  the  Bible — were  drawn 
upon  in  a  most  practical  way.16 

Weems's  Life  of  Washington 

We  have  Lincoln's  own  words  for  it  that  Weems's 
Life  of  Washington  was  the  first  book  that  aroused 
his  curiosity  and  interest  in  his  country  and  a  rev- 


92  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

erence  for  the  great  ideals  for  which  it  stood.  The 
book  so  appealed  to  him  that  in  later  life  he  said 
that  he  considered  Washington  a  God-like  charac- 
ter and  not  merely  a  good  and  wise  man.  As  Lin- 
coln was  traveling  to  Washington  to  be  inaugurated 
he  made  a  speech  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  in  which 
he  said : 

"May  I  be  pardoned  if,  upon  this  occasion,  I  men- 
tion that  away  back  in  my  childhood,  in  the  earliest 
days  of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold  of  a  small 
book — such  a  one  as  few  of  the  younger  members 
have  seen,  Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  I  remem- 
ber all  the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battlefields 
and  struggles  for  the  liberties  of  the  country;  and 
none  fixed  themselves  upon  my  imagination  so  deeply 
as  the  struggle  here  at  Trenton.  The  crossing  of 
the  river,  the  contest  with  the  Hessians,  the  great 
hardships  endured  at  that  time,  all  fixed  themselves 
in  my  memory  more  than  any  single  Revolutionary 
event ;  and  you  all  know,  for  you  all  have  been  boys, 
how  these  early  impressions  last  longer  than  any 
others.  I  recollect  thinking  then,  boy  even  though 
I  was,  that  there  must  have  been  something  more 
than  common  that  these  men  struggled  for.  I  am 
exceedingly  anxious  that  that  thing  which  they 
struggled  for,  .  .  .  that  something  that  held  out  a 
great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  for  all 
time  to  come,  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  this 
Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  shall  be  perpetuated  in  accordance  with  the 
original  idea  for  which  that  struggle  was  made."17 

In  1837,  when  Lincoln  was  twenty-eight  years 
old,  he  made  a  speech  to  the  members  of  the  Young 
Men's  Lyceum  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  on  the  subject 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ       93 

— "The  Perpetuation  of  our  Political  Institutions." 
The  following  excerpts  are  taken  from  this  speech : 

"There  is  even  now  something  of  ill  omen  among 
us.  I  mean  the  increasing  disregard  of  law  which 
pervades  the  country,  the  growing  disposition  to 
substitute  the  wild  and  furious  passions  in  lieu  of 
the  sober  judgment  of  courts,  and  the  worse  than 
savage  mobs,  for  the  executive  ministers  of  justice 
....  I  know  the  American  people  are  much  at- 
tached to  their  government.  I  know  they  would 
suffer  much  for  its  sake.  I  know  they  would  endure 
evils  long  and  patiently  before  they  would  think  of 
exchanging  it  for  another.  Yet  notwithstanding  all 
this,  if  the  laws  be  continually  despised  and  disre- 
garded, if  their  rights  to  be  secure  in  their  persons 
and  property  are  held  by  no  better  tenure  than  the 
caprice  of  a  mob,  the  alienation  of  their  affection 
from  the  government  is  a  natural  consequence,  and 
to  that  sooner  or  later  it  must  come. 

"Here  then,  is  the  one  point  at  which  danger  may 
be  expected.  The  question  recurs,  how  shall  we 
fortify  against  it?  The  answer  is  simple:  let  every 
American,  every  lover  of  liberty,  every  well-wisher 
to  his  posterity,  swear  by  the  blood  of  the  Revolu- 
tion never  to  violate  in  the  least  particular  the  laws 
of  the  country,  and  never  to  tolerate  their  violation 
by  others.  .  .  .  Let  reverence  for  the  laws  be 
breathed  by  every  American  mother  to  the  lisping 
babe  that  prattles  on  her  lap.  Let  it  be  taught  in 
schools,  in  seminaries,  and  in  colleges.  Let  it  be 
written  in  primers,  spelling  books,  and  almanacs. 
Let  it  be  preached  from  the  pulpits,  proclaimed  in 
legislative  halls,  and  enforced  in  courts  of  justice. 
.  .  .  Let  it  become  the  political   religion  .  .  .  ."18 


94  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

In  the  above  speech  we  can  readily  see  the  in- 
fluence the  study  of  Weems's  Life  of  Washington, 
which  contained  Washington's  Address  of  1796,  had 
on  Lincoln.  A  comparison  of  these  excerpts  with 
the  extracts  taken  from  Weems's  Life  of  Washing- 
ton, set  forth  in  the  appendix,  will  show  a  striking 
resemblance.  The  author  firmly  believe  that  the 
study  of  Weems's  Life  of  Washington  gave  young 
Lincoln  his  inspiration  to  write  his  article  on  Na- 
tional Politics.  His  Illinois  speech  is  an  enlargement 
upon  that  article.  And  we  believe  the  guiding  hand 
of  Judge  Pitcher  can  be  seen  in  this  Illinois  speech, 
for  he  it  was  who  gave  young  Lincoln  lessons  on  the 
necessity  for  law  and  order  and  the  observance  of 
the  Constitution. 

The  Kentucky  Preceptor 
Lincoln  read  the  Kentucky  Preceptor  in  the 
home  of  its  owner,  Josiah  Crawford,  for  whom  the 
young  man  worked  as  a  hired  hand  for  twenty-five 
cents  a  day.  This  book  was  written  to  teach  patriot- 
ism and  high  ideals.  It  was,  indeed,  a  serious  book 
— holding  forth  great  deeds  to  the  youth  of  the  land 
and  showing  how  men  hate  tyranny  and  love  free- 
dom.19 Mrs.  Crawford  says  that  Abe  "learned  his 
school  orations,  speeches,  and  pieces  to  write"  from 
the  Kentucky  Preceptor.20  Perhaps  it  was  from  this 
school  reader  that  Lincoln  got  further  ideas  that 
slavery  was  wrong  to  supplement  the  teaching  of  his 
father,  his  mother,  and  his  stepmother.  The  Ken- 
tucky Preceptor  that  Lincoln  studied  in  the  home  of 
Josiah  Crawford  was  given  to  his  grandson,  William 
Adams  of  Rockport,  Indiana,  who  in  1865  sold 
the  book  to  William  H.  Herndon,  Lincoln's  bi- 
ographer. 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ       95 

The  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana 

David  Turnham,  the  constable,  lived  in  Gentry- 
ville,  Indiana,  and  to  his  home  young  Lincoln  often 
went  to  read  a  book  which  Mr.  Turnham  used  in  his 
profession.  This  was  the  Revised  Statutes  of  In- 
diana and  was,  no  doubt,  the  first  law  book  Lincoln 
ever  read.  This  book  turned  Lincoln's  attention  to 
law  and  led  him  to  seek  out  Judge  Pitcher  and  talk 
with  him  about  law,  as  well  as  to  borrow  law  books 
from  him,  as  we  shall  see  later.  It  also  caused 
young  Lincoln  to  begin  his  efforts  at  oratory,  for  he 
felt  that  a  lawyer  must  be  able  to  talk  effectively 
before  judge  and  jury.21 

The  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana  contained  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  In- 
diana, the  Ordinance  of  1787  that  provided  for  the 
governing  of  the  Northwest  Territory  out  of  which 
the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and 
Wisconsin  were  later  formed,  a  number  of  statutes 
that  set  out  the  procedure  and  practice  in  law  and 
equity  when  applied  to  civil  government,  and  an  out- 
line of  the  organization  of  the  government  of  a  de- 
mocracy, a  state,  a  congressional  district,  a  county, 
a  township,  and  a  town. 

Speaking  on  this  subject,  John  E.  Iglehart  of 
Evansville,  Indiana,  says:  "I  have  had  in  my  law 
library  for  fifty  years  an  old  copy  of  the  Revised 
Statutes  of  Indiana  of  182 U,  with  the  names  of  two 
generations  of  lawyers  written  upon  it,  a  book  from 
the  Corydon  press,  a  duplicate  in  every  respect  of 
the  statutes  which  Lincoln  borrowed  from  Turnham 
....  From  the  standpoint  now  of  Lincoln's  life 


96  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

and  career  this  .  .  .  book  was  indeed  a  great  one. 
The  English  common  law,  in  the  study  and  practice 
of  which  I  have  spent  fifty  years  of  my  life,  is  in  my 
judgment  the  best  system  of  logic  applied  to  the 
practical  affairs  of  men  which  the  literature  of  the 
world  has  produced.  The  system  of  equity  arose 
out  of  the  conscience  of  the  English  judges,  and  law 
and  equity  as  outlined  in  these  old  statutes  repre- 
sented the  evolution  of  the  life  of  the  English  peo- 
ple for  one  thousand  years,  and  the  form  of  these 
statutes  on  court  practice  and  procedure  was  taken 
largely  from  those  of  the  older  states.  .  .  .  Let  the 
historians  answer  the  question,  What  more  was 
needed  after  he  had  mastered  the  contents  of  this 
volume  to  equip  Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  life-work 
before  him,  as  he  later  followed  it,  when  in  his 
twenty-second  year,  on  foot,  he  drove  an  ox  team 
out  of  this  wilderness  to  the  prairies  of  Illinois?  In 
a  very  short  time  he  entered  a  public  career  and 
soon  measured  to  the  mastery  with  the  best  equipped 
and  ablest  men  of  the  state."22 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
first  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  either  from  his 
history  while  attending  the  "blab"  schools  in  In- 
diana or  from  David  Turnham's  Revised  Statutes  of 
Indiana.  We  have  the  best  obtainable  evidence — 
Lincoln's  own  statement — that  these  two  great  docu- 
ments had  much  influence  in  moulding  his  life  and 
character.  On  February  21  and  22,  1861,  while  en- 
route  to  Washington  for  his  first  inauguration,  Lin- 
coln delivered  two  speeches  in  Liberty  Hall  in  Phil- 
adelphia. 

On  February  21  he  said:  "As  it  were,  to  listen 


THE  BOOKS  THAT  LINCOLN  READ       97 

to  those  breathings,  rising  within  the  consecrated 
walls  wherein  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and,  I  will  add,  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
were  originally  framed  and  adopted.  I  assure  you 
and  your  mayor  that  I  had  hoped  on  this  occasion, 
and  upon  all  occasions  during  my  life,  that  I  shall 
do  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  teachings  of  these 
holy  and  most  sacred  walls.  I  have  never  asked  any- 
thing that  does  not  breathe  from  those  walls.  All 
my  political  warfare  has  been  in  favor  of  the  teach- 
ings that  come  forth  from  these  sacred  walls.  May 
my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning  and  my  tongue 
cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth  if  ever  I  prove  false 
to  those  teachings." 

He  said  on  February  22:  "I  can  say  in  return, 
sir,  that  all  the  political  sentiments  I  entertain  have 
been  drawn,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw 
them,  from  the  sentiments  which  originated  in  and 
were  given  to  the  world  from  this  hall.  I  have 
never  had  a  feeling  politically,  that  did  not  spring 
from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence." 

In  the  Revised  Statutes  Lincoln  read,  no  doubt, 
time  and  again,  the  famous  Article  6  of  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787:  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor 
involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  territory,  other- 
wise than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted:  provided  al- 
ways, that  any  person  escaping  into  the  same  from 
whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed  in  any  one 
of  the  original  States,  such  fugitive  may  be  lawfully 
reclaimed,  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his 
or  her  labor  or  service,  as  aforesaid." 

Here  young  Lincoln  got  a  lasting  impression  that 


98  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

the  territories  were  free  but  that  slavery  legally  ex- 
isted in  the  original  thirteen  states  where  it  was 
found.  And  he  clung  to  this  belief,  aided  by  the 
same  interpretation  held  by  Judge  Pitcher.  When 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  in  1854  set  aside  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise,  which  forbade  slavery  in  the  ter- 
ritory north  and  northwest  of  Missouri,  Lincoln  was 
aroused  as  never  before  because  he  believed  that 
slavery  should  not  be  allowed  to  expand.  Yet  Lin- 
coln still  held  firmly  the  belief  that  the  Constitution 
protected  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  existed  and 
that  no  one  had  a  right  to  disturb  it  there — a  belief 
he  held  when  elected  President  and  which  he  contin- 
ued to  hold  until  he  saw  the  necessity  of  abolishing 
slavery  to  preserve  the  Union.  Thus,  again,  those 
early  Indiana  impressions  remained  with  Lincoln 
throughout  his  life. 

We  know  from  Mr.  Turnham  that  Lincoln  not 
only  read  and  studied  diligently  the  Revised  Statutes 
of  Indiana  but  discussed  the  contents  of  the  book 
intelligently  and  had  committed  to  memory  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  numerous  extracts 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  He  had 
already  read  and  re-read  Weems's  Life  of  Washing- 
ton and  the  two  books  together  gave  him  a  good 
foundation  upon  which  to  build  his  future  political 
thinking — he  had  quite  a  thorough  understanding 
how  our  country  was  born,  the  principles  upon  which 
it  was  founded,  how  it  was  governed,  and  of  the 
laws  of  one  of  our  great  states.  And  shortly  after- 
wards he  was  reading  law  from  books  lent  to  him 
by  Judge  John  Pitcher  of  Rockport  and  listening  to 
law  cases  as  tried  by  the  great  lawyer,  Brecken- 
ridge,  in  Boonville. 


CHAPTER  IX 

LINCOLN'S  INTELLECTUAL 
ENVIRONMENT 

The  Men  Who  Helped  to  Make  Lincoln 

"Not  a  demigod  or  saint 
Such  as  fancy  loves  to  paint, 
But  a  truly  human  man 
Built  on  a  heroic  plan." 

— Hamilton  Schuyler. 

Environment  is  not  everything  in  a  life,  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  it  plays  a  great  part  in  the 
moulding  of  character  especially  during  the  adoles- 
cent period.  Elsewhere  we  have  considered  Lin- 
coln's ancestry  and  have  found  that  good  blood  from 
both  sides  of  his  house  flowed  in  his  veins. 

Many  of  Lincoln's  biographers  have  pictured  his 
life  in  Indiana  as  spent  among  rude,  illiterate,  and 
uncultured  people.  These  writers  did  not  know  the 
facts  and  did  not  take  time  to  ascertain  them.  The 
data  were  not  easily  available  and  they  were  not 
searched  for.  It  is  said  that  one  of  his  principal 
biographers  spent  a  day  in  Spencer  County,  Indiana, 
while  another  spent  three  or  four  days. 

But  the  facts  are  at  hand  now,  thanks  to  the 
untiring  efforts  of  men  like  John  E.  Iglehart  of 
Evansville,  Indiana,  and  Rev.  J.  Edward  Murr  of 
New  Albany,  Indiana.  Thanks  also  to  the  faithful 
work  of  some  of  the  descendants  of  the  pioneers  of 
Southern  Indiana  of  Lincoln's  time.  One  of  these 
is  Mrs.  Bess  Ehrmann  of  Rockport,  Indiana,  to 
whom  the  author  is  indebted  for  a  great  amount  of 

99 


100  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

material  concerning  Lincoln's  neighbors.  Mrs.  Ehr- 
mann says : 

"I  have  always  deeply  resented  the  impression 
given  by  many  historians  and  writers  that  those 
early  pioneers  in  Spencer  County  were  uncouth,  illi- 
terate people.  True  there  were  some  such,  as  there 
were  in  all  other  states,  but  the  brave  men  who 
came  to  make  their  homes  in  what  was  then  a  vast 
wilderness  were  often  men  of  culture  and  education, 
many  from  the  aristocratic  families  of  Virginia, 
the  Carolinas,  and  Massachusetts  who  have  left 
to  their  children  and  children's  children  heirlooms 
of  linen,  silver,  furniture,  books,  historical  docu- 
ments and  pictures  which  prove  their  ancestry  and 
education.  .  .  ." 

"Having  been  born  in  Spencer  County  and  lived 
here  practically  all  my  life,  I  have  known  intimately 
the  children  and  grandchildren  of  those  early  people. 
My  mother  told  me  much  of  the  lives  and  histories 
of  Spencer  County  pioneers,  as  her  father,  Thomas 
P.  Britton,  was  one  of  those  who  came  from  Vir- 
ginia about  the  year  1825  and  my  mother  was  born 
in  one  of  the  few  log  houses  that  made  up  the  then 
little  village  of  Rockport."1 

Mrs.  Ehrmann  assures  us  that  a  great  number  of 
Abraham  Lincoln's  neighbors  were  highly  educated 
and  that  he  lived  his  life  in  Indiana  among  pioneer 
aristocrats — aristocrats  in  the  full  sense  of  the  term 
— the  most  skillful,  the  best  trained,  and  the  most 
highly  cultured  and  educated.  To  create  a  state  out 
of  a  wilderness,  to  set  up  a  government,  to  establish 
churches  and  schools,  to  subdue  nature,  and  to  build 
homes  required  the  work  of  the  most  skillful  and 
educated  men2 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  101 

And  we  are  surely  mistaken  if  we  think  it  re- 
quired only  strength  and  no  knowledge  and  skill  on 
the  part  of  the  men  to  wield  the  ax  and  the  maul  and 
to  plow  over  stumpy  fields,  and  on  the  part  of  the 
women  to  care  for  their  household  duties  without  a 
single  one  of  our  many  modern  conveniences.  There 
are  very  few  women  today  who  have  the  required 
knowledge  and  skill  to  do  what  every  Hoosier  girl 
in  Southern  Indiana  did  in  her  daily  work — carding, 
spinning,  reeling,  knitting,  and  weaving. 

Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  explained  and  under- 
stood only  when  the  chapter  has  been  written  of  the 
great  characters  with  whom  he  associated  and  se- 
cured his  early  training  in  Southern  Indiana.  This 
chapter  is  devoted  to  that  subject  and  it  is  the  hope 
of  the  author  that  it  will  set  aside  forever  such  state- 
ments as  were  set  out  in  a  former  chapter  by  Hern- 
don,  Weik,  and  Lamon  as  to  the  barrenness  of  Lin- 
coln's life  in  his  youth  and  early  manhood. 

One  of  these  great  characters  with  whom  Lincoln 
came  in  contact  in  Indiana  and  who  left  a  deep  im- 
press upon  his  mind  and  his  method  of  thinking  was 
Judge  John  Pitcher  of  Rockport.  Of  this  man  Judge 
Iglehart  says :  "John  Pitcher  was  one  of  the  greatest 
trial  lawyers  in  Indiana.  .  ..  Pitcher  had  Northern 
ideas  on  slavery.  He  was  one  of  the  chosen  and  fit 
actors  in  the  great  drama  staged  in  the  wilderness 
of  Southern  Indiana.  Strong  circumstantial  evi- 
dence exists  to  show  that  the  influences  following 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  which  according  to  Charn- 
wood  so  powerfully  influenced  Lincoln's  whole  life, 
were  correctly  interpreted  to  him  by  John  Pitcher, 
whose  life,  when  written,  will,  I  believe,  shine  in  the 


102  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

reflected  light  of  the  life  and  ideals  of  Abraham 
Lincoln."3 

Mrs.  Alice  L.  Harper  Hanby  of  Posey  County, 
Indiana,  says :  "Whether  or  not  Lincoln  studied  law 
in  Pitcher's  office  at  Rockport,  Pitcher  did  loan  him 
books, — moreover  law  books.  This  fact  is  known, 
more  or  less  completely  to  many  in  Posey  County. 
I  know  it  myself,  as  I  was  shown  the  so-called  Lin- 
coln Books — the  two  volumes  of  Blackstone  in  which 
Lincoln  had  written  his  name.  I  saw  them  in  the 
early  nineties  or  late  eighties  .  .  .  ,  I  cannot  fix  the 
exact  date." 

"Granting,  then,  that  Lincoln  may  have  studied 
law  in  Pitcher's  office  on  some  terms  or  other  for 
a  longer  or  shorter  period,  one  must  also  allow  the 
contention  that  during  such  time  or  times,  Lincoln 
was  subject  to  influences  that  had  to  do,  not  only 
with  the  molding  of  character  and  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge,  legal  or  otherwise,  but  which  must 
have  given  the  political  bias  that  proved  the  corner- 
stone of  Lincoln's  rise  to  power.  .  .  .  Pitcher  at 
that  times  was  an  Old  Line  Whig,  and  later  Lin- 
coln became  an  Old  Line  Whig." 

"In  the  end,  Pitcher  became  a  Democrat,  Lincoln 
a  Black  Republican,  but  up  to  the  parting  of  the 
ways  Pitcher's  conservative  views  may  have  tem- 
pered Lincoln's  more  radical  bent.  Pitcher  was  a 
Union  man  before,  and  also  after  the  Civil  War,  and 
was  early  an  opponent  to  the  extension  of  slavery 
into  free  territory,  as  was  Lincoln.  Both  believed 
in  collective  vision,  and  followed  it.  What  was  guar- 
anteed by  the  Federal  Constitution  neither  would 
have  tampered  with,  and  neither,  not  even  Lincoln, 
recognized  the  deeper  issues  involved,  issues  that 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  103 

doomed  the  protected  institution  of  slavery.  .  .  . 
Lincoln,  almost  throughout  his  whole  career,  was 
governed  by  the  false  thesis  that  slavery  should  be 
preserved  where  it  was  because  of  Constitutional 
provision; — Pitcher's  teaching  left  its  impress.  He 
it  was  that  must  have  instilled  that  reverence  for 
the  Federal  Constitution  that  blinded  Lincoln  all 
his  days." 

"If  Lincoln  chose  John  Pitcher  as  his  model  in 
the  matter  of  the  law,  he  had,  no  doubt,  ample  op- 
portunity for  the  study,  in  private,  in  debate,  at  the 
bar,  on  the  stump  (probably),  in  familiar  inter- 
course, alone  or  with  others,  Lincoln  had  the 
chance." 

"The  Lincoln  books  in  Pitcher's  possession  would 
seem  to  point  unerringly  to  at  least  one  source  of 
Lincoln's  legal  equipment.  Moreover,  Lincoln's  su- 
perior merit  as  a  lawyer  was  Pitcher's  own,  that 
quick  seizing  of  salient  points,  and  centering  the 
attack  where  none  but  "Big  Guns"  are  of  any  avail. 
Both  Lincoln  and  Pitcher  had  logic,  practically  in- 
vincible. Lincoln  had  humor  as  a  rival  to  Pitcher's 
withering  sarcasm.  .  .  .  Both  minds  were  essen- 
tially legal,  but  so  different  in  character  were  the 
two  men.  .  .  .  The  attraction  of  opposites  is  some- 
thing that  cannot  be  measured,  and  Pitcher's  un- 
usual personality,  education,  station,  disinguished 
ancestry,  etc.,  could  scarcely  have  failed  to  impress 
Lincoln.  It  would,  indeed,  be  strange  had  it  been 
otherwise.  Pitcher  was  an  exceedingly  well  read 
man  and  a  fine  conversationalist,  and  when  in  the 
mood  could  be  a  very  affable  companion.  He  was 
also  of  a  certain  philosophical  turn  that  undoubtedly 
would  have  appealed  to  a  mind  such  as  Lincoln's.  .  . 


104  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Hence,  in  ways  we  know  not  of,  as  in  ways  we  do, 
John  Pitcher  doubtless  played  a  large  part  in  the 
life  of  Lincoln."4 

In  a  conversation  with  Jesse  W.  Weik,  Judge 
Pitcher  told  how  young  Lincoln  often  walked  from 
his  home  near  Gentryville  to  Rockport,  a  distance 
of  fifteen  miles,  to  talk  with  him  about  books  and 
the  improvement  of  his  education.  "I  counseled 
with  him,"  said  Pitcher,  "and  loaned  him  several 
books,  some  of  them  being  law  books,  which  he  took 
home  with  him  to  read.  I  understood  he  wanted  to 
become  a  lawyer  and  I  tried  to  encourage  him."5 

Rev.  John  E.  Cox  of  Evansville,  Indiana,  was  a 
soldier  in  the  regular  army,  belonging  to  a  regiment 
of  which  Colonel  Thomas  Gamble  Pitcher,  son  of 
Judge  John  Pitcher,  was  commander.  In  a  paper 
read  before  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical 
Society  at  Evansville,  Indiana,  February  28,  1923, 
Mr.  Cox  told  how  when  he  lived  at  Mt.  Vernon,  In- 
diana, he  often  had  talks  with  Judge  Pitcher,  then 
in  his  eighty-fifth  year  and  how  the  Judge,  know- 
ing that  he  was  a  minister,  gave  him  some  good 
advice : 

"Of  course,"  he  said,  "your  principal  textbook 
will  be  the  Bible;  but  you  should  also  read  and  study 
the  best  romance  literature,  in  order  to  develop  your 
imagination.  I  gave  this  advice  to  the  Pentecost 
boys,  and  you  know  that  they  became  noted  preach- 
ers." Continuing,  the  Judge  said :  "Speaking  of  the 
Bible:  I  have  studied  it  all  my  life  and  have  found 
it  a  great  help  in  my  legal  addresses,  I  have  always 
urged  young  lawyers  to  study  the  Bible  along  with 
their  law  books."  And  perhaps  Judge  Pitcher  gave 
this  advice  to  young  Abraham  Lincoln! 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  105 

Mr.  Cox  told  how  Judge  Pitcher  delighted  to  talk 
of  the  boyhood  days  of  Lincoln.  On  one  occasion 
Mr.  Cox  asked  the  Judge  what  influences  did  most 
in  shaping  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The 
Judge  replied:  "First,  he  had  a  good  mother.  Sec- 
ond, he  had  a  good  stepmother.  Both  women  were 
above  the  average  of  their  day  and  times,  in  char- 
acter and  intelligence.  And  both  instilled  into  the 
mind  of  the  boy  an  ambition  to  gain  knowledge  and 
make  a  man  of  himself."6 

Another  great  lawyer  with  whom  young  Lincoln 
came  into  contact  was  John  A.  Breckenridge  of 
Boonville.  Lincoln  often  walked  from  his  home  to 
Boonville  to  hear  this  lawyer  plead  his  cases.  Mrs. 
Eldora  Minor  Raleigh  says  that  Breckenridge  lent 
Lincoln  law  books  and  the  two  men  became  close 
friends.7  We  know,  too,  that  young  Lincoln  often 
visited  in  the  home  of  the  Breckenridges  and  would 
sometimes  stay  all  day  and  all  night  reading  law. 
We  have  stated  before  that  Wesley  Hall  says  that 
Lincoln  also  read  Shakespeare  in  the  Breckenridge 
home.  Lincoln  himself  ascribes  to  Breckenridge  the 
high  ideals  of  his  youth  in  oratory. 

In  his  desire  to  know  law  we  have  noted  that 
young  Lincoln  attended  court  at  Rockport  and  Boon- 
ville. On  one  occasion,  a  murder  had  been  com- 
mitted and  the  defendant  had  employed  a  famous 
lawyer,  John  Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky,  to  defend 
him.  When  this  news  reached  Gentryville,  a  crowd 
of  men  went  to  Boonville  to  hear  the  case,  and 
among  them  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  Breckenridge 
made  a  powerful  address,  and  during  a  recess  of  the 
court,  members  of  the  bar  pressed  forward  and  con- 
gratulated him.     Lincoln,  too,  was  moved  by  the 


106  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

speech  and  desired  to  show  his  appreciation.  Push- 
ing forward  he  presented  his  hand  to  Breckenridge 
who  turned  his  back  upon  him,  not  thinking  it 
proper  to  recognize  an  uncouth  youth  dressed  in 
buckskin  breeches!  Many  years  later  the  two  men 
met  again.  When  Mr.  Breckenridge  was  presented 
to  the  President,  Lincoln  did  not  turn  his  back  upon 
him  but  grasped  his  outstretched  hand,  saying  as 
he  did  so:  "Oh,  yes  I  know  Mr.  Breckenridge.  I 
heard  you  address  a  jury  in  a  murder  trial  at  Boon- 
ville,  Indiana,  when  I  was  a  boy.  I  remember  that 
I  thought  at  the  time  it  was  a  great  speech,  and  if 
I  could  make  a  speech  like  that  I  would  be  very 
happy"8 

Twenty  miles  from  Lincoln's  home,  near  Boon- 
ville,  lived  Ratliff  Boone,  United  States  Congress- 
man of  Lincoln's  district,  which  at  that  time  in- 
cluded Southwestern  Indiana.  From  1825  to  1839, 
except  for  one  term,  1827-1829,  Boone  was  in  Con- 
gress. Abraham  Lincoln  at  that  time  was  a  young 
man  interested  in  the  study  of  law.  Thomas  Lin- 
coln was  a  Jackson  Democrat  and  a  supporter  of 
Boone.  He  had  known  Boone  when  they  lived  in 
Kentucky  and  perhaps  Boone's  removal  to  Indiana 
in  1809  had  something  to  do  with  Lincoln's  removal 
to  that  state  in  1816  and  with  his  settling  where  he 
did — a  short  distance  from  Boone's  home — just  as 
the  removal  of  Daniel  Boone  from  Virginia  to  Ken- 
tucky had  something  to  do  with  the  removal  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  father  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  from 
the  former  to  the  latter  state. 

Mrs.  Josiah  Crawford  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment made  to  William  H.  Herndon  that  young  Lin- 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  107 

coin  sang  the  following  campaign  song  in  the  elec- 
tion of  1828  between  Jackson  and  Adams: 

"Let  auld  acquaintance  be  forgot 
And  never  brought  to  mind, 

May  Jackson  be  our  president, 
And  Adams  left  behind." 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  pronounced  Jackson 
Democrat  and  had  he  been  a  voter  in  1828  would 
have  cast  his  vote  for  "Old  Hickory."  At  the  age 
of  twenty-one  when  he  moved  from  Indiana  to  Illi- 
nois he  was  still  a  Democrat  but  not  a  "still  Demo- 
crat." He  had  not  been  in  Illinois  long,  according 
to  a  story  told  by  John  Hanks,  when  he  was  about 
to  whip  a  man  who  had  cast  a  disparaging  remark 
about  Jackson. 

We  may  feel  quite  safe  in  saying  that  Abraham 
Lincoln,  eager  as  he  was  for  oratory  and  politics  at 
the  age  of  twenty,  had  come  into  contact  with  Con- 
gressman Ratliff  Boone.  Boone  was  the  Congress- 
man of  the  British  settlers  and  we  may  believe  that 
he  knew  quite  well  his  intellectual  constituents  in 
that  neighborhood — the  Wheelers,  Ingles,  Maidlows, 
Hornbrooks,  Hillyards,  Parretts,  and  others.  He 
knew,  too,  of  the  splendid  libraries  in  the  homes 
of  these  families.  Is  it  too  much  to  believe  that  Lin- 
coln might  have  learned  of  this  mine  of  informa- 
tion from  his  Congressman,  if  from  no  other  source  ? 

Boone  had  a  peculiar  style  of  campaigning  which 
must  have  appealed  to  Lincoln.  It  is  said  that  "he 
always  came  home  in  the  spring,  laid  off  the  corn 
rows  for  his  sons,  and  then  returned  to  Washing- 
ton."9 ".  .  .  When  out  electioneering  for  office 
Colonel  Boone  would  stop  at  a  crossroads  blacksmith 


108  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

shop  and  while  his  competitor  presented  his  claims 
for  the  blacksmith's  support,  Boone  would  pound 
out  a  setting  of  horse  shoe  nails,  some  chain  links 
or  clevises  for  the  blacksmith,  thus  showing  that  he 
was  not  above  labor  and  knew  how  to  handle  tools." 

"For  thirty  years  Colonel  Boone  was  closely 
identified  with  county,  state,  and  national  politics. 
From  a  historical  standpoint  he  was  more  than  a 
local  celebrity.  .  .  .  Colonel  Boone's  contemporary 
associates  were  Jonathan  Jennings,  Benjamin  Parke, 
Isaac  Blackford,  General  W.  Johnston,  Nathaniel 
Ewing,  John  Johnson,  Henry  Vanderburgh,  William 
Hendricks,  William  Henry  Harrison,  John  H. 
Thompson,  David  Dale  Owen,  James  Noble,  Henry 
P.  Coburn,  Elisha  Embree,  Robert  M.  Evans,  and 
many  others  whose  names  are  recorded  in  the  official 
rolls  of  the  state."10 

Something  of  the  culture  of  Southern  Indiana 
can  be  seen  by  the  mere  enumeration  of  the  great 
men  produced  in  that  part  of  the  state — men  who 
lived  in  Lincoln's  neighborhood  and  close  to  him  in 
time  as  well  as  in  space. 

".  .  .  The  private  secretary  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  Ma- 
jor John  Hay,  who  later  became  one  of  our  greatest 
Secretaries  of  State,  was  born  a  few  miles  north 
of  where  Lincoln  lived ;  and  within  fifteen  miles  from 
the  birthplace  of  Hay  and  a  few  miles  to  the  east  of 
Lincoln  there  lived  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  afterward 
an  eminent  jurist,  a  great  soldier  and  also  a  Secre- 
tary of  State.  Here  resided  Eads,  of  Eads  jetties 
fame;  and  it  was  from  this  portion  of  the  state 
that  there  came  Generals  Harrison,  Hovey,  Wal- 
lace, Burnside,  Rosecrans  and  others  of  Civil  War 
fame;   the   Lanes — James,   Joseph,   and   Henry   S. 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  109 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  Generals  Jefferson  C. 
Davis,  John  Tipton,  Governor  Jennings  and  Joaquin 
Miller;  of  writers,  jurists,  orators,  educators  and 
statesmen,  who  subdued  this  wilderness,  fought  val- 
iantly at  Shiloh,  Vicksburg,  Antietam,  Gettysburg; 
or  marched  with  Sherman  to  the  sea?  Among  such 
a  people  capable  of  producing  and  rearing  these,  and 
such  as  these,  Mr.  Lincoln  spent  those  years  between 
seven  and  twenty-one.  If  we  may  be  permitted  to 
assume  that  the  Almighty  desired  early  to  surround 
His  destined  leader  through  a  terrible  Civil  War 
with  those  influences  best  calculated  to  bring  about 
the  deliverance  of  a  people  in  bondage,  as  well  as 
preserve  the  unity  and  continuity  of  a  great  nation, 
by  taking  him  to  a  free  state  among  a  people  who 
had  strong  convictions  against  human  slavery,  then 
we  may  see  no  departure  from  His  ancient  methods 
in  dealing  with  His  chosen."11 

The  author  has  set  forth,  at  length,  in  the  ap- 
pendix, a  list  of  men  who  lived  in  Spencer  and  ad- 
joining counties,  all  of  whom  young  Lincoln  could 
have  known  and  many  of  whom  we  know  influenced 
his  life.  The  mere  reading  of  this  list  will  convince 
one  that  Lincoln  spent  the  formative  period  of  his 
life  among  highly  cultured  people. 

The  British  Settlement 

Perhaps  no  person  is  a  better  authority  on  the 
history  of  Southern  Indiana  during  the  period  when 
the  Lincolns  lived  there  than  is  John  E.  Iglehart  of 
Evansville,  Indiana.  He  has  made  a  careful  and 
extensive  study  of  the  British  settlement  located  a 
few  miles  from  the  Lincoln  homestead.  He  knew 
personally  some  of  those  early  colonizers  and  many 


110  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

of  their  children.  From  conversation  and  corres- 
pondence with  them  he  has  gathered  much  valuable 
information  about  the  people  of  Southern  Indiana. 

The  British  settlers  came  to  the  United  States 
during  the  period  of  reconstruction  in  Europe  fol- 
lowing the  Napoleonic  wars.  Economic  conditions 
in  their  home  lands  were  bad  and  taxes  were  oppres- 
sive. Those  Englishmen,  "who  having  something 
left  to  be  robbed  of,  and  wishing  to  preserve  it,  were 
looking  toward  America  as  a  place  of  refuge  from 
the  boroughmongers  and  the  Holy  Alliance."12 

Political  conditions  were  likewise  bad  for  Eng- 
land was  in  no  wise  a  democracy.  The  Reform  bill 
of  1832 — a  first  step  on  the  road  to  political  democ- 
racy— was  yet  several  years  in  the  future.  Nor  did 
the  English  government  take  a  liberal  view  in  reli- 
gious matters.  The  Corporation  Act  of  1661  and 
the  Test  Act  of  1673  kept  the  dissenting  Protestants 
from  holding  office  because  of  the  necessity  of  tak- 
ing sacrament  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Church 
of  England — a  thing  they  would  not  do.  These  acts 
were  not  repealed  in  England  until  1828,  eleven 
years  after  the  beginning  of  the  British  settlement 
in  Southern  Indiana. 

The  British  settlement  was  made  in  1817  by 
Saunders  Hornbrook,  Jr.,  and  named  Saundersville 
in  his  honor.  To  it  the  next  year  moved  many  Eng- 
lish, Irish,  and  Scotch-Irish  emigrants.  Among  the 
English  were  Edward  Maidlow  and  John  Ingle.  Of 
the  latter  we  are  told  he  was  "a  most  intelligent  and 
respectable  Hampshire  farmer,  who  brought  con- 
siderable capital  and  English  habits  and  feelings  the 
best  in  the  world."13  John  Ingle  was  a  very  active 
leader  in  all  community  affairs. 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  111 

The  oldest  son  of  John  Ingle  of  Saundersville 
was  John  Ingle,  Jr.,  born  in  England  in  1812  but 
reared  in  the  British  settlement.  John  Ingle,  Jr., 
took  an  active  part  in  railroad  building  in  Southern 
Indiana,  was  the  first  secretary  and  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  railroad  and  soon  became  its  presi- 
dent. He  was  the  first  president  of  the  first  tele- 
graph line  establish  south  of  Vincennes  and  west  of 
Louisville;  he  was  active  in  organizing  a  company 
for  mining  coal;  he  helped  to  promote  the  Wabash 
and  Erie  canal  from  Lake  Erie  to  Evansville;  he 
was  the  first  president  of  the  first  public  library  in 
Evansville;  he  was  Sunday  school  superintendent 
for  nearly  twenty  years  of  the  leading  Methodist 
Church  of  Evansville — the  present  Trinity  Church. 
He  was  a  tower  of  strength  intellectually,  morally, 
and  religiously.  "His  moral  character  and  reputa- 
tion were  without  blemish  in  the  community.  .  .  . 
In  public  charity  and  benevolence  he  was  liberal  to 
the  full  limit  of  his  ability,  always  a  leader;  and 
his  pastor  said  of  him  at  his  funeral  that  he  always 
carried  with  him  an  order  from  John  Ingle  Jr.,  for 
a  load  of  coal  for  the  suffering  poor,  but  he  was 
not  permitted  to  give  the  name  of  the  donor."14 

Among  the  Irish  who  came  in  1818  were  the 
Mc Johnstons  and  Hillyards.  Richard  and  Joseph 
Wheeler  and  Robert  Parrett,  who  were  English,  and 
the  Erskines,  who  were  Sotch-Irish,  came  in  1819. 
They  all  located  a  few  miles  east  of  Saundersville, 
the  original  English  settlement.  "All  of  them  were 
strong  men  and  natural  leaders,  who  became  and 
remained  during  their  lives  the  center  of  a  large 
circle  in  the  Saundersville  community  exercising 
wide  and  permanent  influence.     The  Parretts  and 


112  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Wheelers  were  men  cast  in  the  same  mould,  highly- 
educated  for  the  time,  bringing  with  them  in  the 
wilderness  English  culture  and  the  stern  principles 
of  right,  truth,  and  morality,  which  were  taught  in 
the  doctrines  and  life  of  John  Wesley."15 

In  two  years'  time  the  British  settlement  had 
fifty-three  families  who  had  taken  up  twelve  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  acres  of  land  and  had  capital  to 
the  amount  of  eighty  thousand  dollars.16  By  1821, 
four  years  after  its  inception,  the  settlement  con- 
tained over  one  hundred  families  or  from  five  hun- 
dred to  seven  hundred  people.  It  had  no  definite 
bounds,  but  as  time  went  on  there  was  a  tendency 
for  the  settlers  to  drift  southward  toward  Evans- 
ville,  along  the  high  ground,  as  this  was  considered 
more  healthful.  In  1826  we  find  Saundersville  de- 
scribed as  "a  flourishing  .  .  .  town  in  Vanderburgh 
County."17 

The  British  settlers  took  an  active  part  in  the 
upbuilding  of  their  community  and  of  neighboring 
communities.  They  were  interested  in  turn-pike 
and  canal  construction,  in  the  improvement  of  agri- 
culture, in  educational  and  religious  work.  They 
took  a  fine  and  determined  stand  for  law  and  order 
and  wished  to  erect  their  homes  on  a  Christian  civil- 
ization.18 Upon  these  early  British  pioneers,  the 
surrounding  country  and  the  city  of  Evansville  and 
other  cities  depended  for  a  period  of  fifteen  years 
for  educated  ministers.10  Rev.  Wheeler  and  Rev. 
Parrett  were  highly  educated  Wesleyan  ministers 
and  for  a  generation  their  influence  for  a  mighty 
good  was  felt  among  the  people. 

These  British  settlers  were  "men  of  capital,  of 
industry,  of  sober  and  regular  pursuits;  men  of  re- 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  113 

flection,  who  apprehended  approaching  evils;  men 
of  upright  and  conscientious  minds,  to  whose  happi- 
ness civil  and  religious  liberty  were  essential."20 
They  came  "as  pioneers  and  citizens  of  a  democratic 
republic,  where  the  oppressive  burden  of  rents, 
tithes,  poor  rates  and  taxes  from  which  they  fled, 
practically  had  no  existence.  They  came,  too,  like 
the  Pilgrims  of  old,  to  seek  freedom  from  oppression, 
including  freedom  to  worship  God."21  A  number  of 
these  early  pioneers  were  Puritans  who  "believed 
implicitly  in  God's  providence  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
and  that  moral  forces  rule  the  world.  The  moral 
and  religious  supremacy  of  the  Indiana  settlement 
was  early  one  of  its  distinguishing  features."  Such 
were  the  men  who  gave  "color  and  tone  to  the  so- 
ciety, manners  and  customs  of  the  people  with  whom 
they  mingled."22  The  British  settlers  did  not  look 
upon  themselves  as  Britishers  in  America  but  rather 
as  Americans  and  they  located  in  what  has  been 
termed  the  most  American  of  our  states.  They  came 
into  contact  and  mingled  freely  with  the  other  two 
elements  of  society  —  the  backwoodsmen  of  the 
South,  coming  into  Indiana  through  Kentucky,  who 
made  up  the  great  bulk  of  the  people,  and  a  rela- 
tively few  men  from  the  East — from  New  England, 
New  York,  and  the  other  Atlantic  Coast  States. 

"In  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  the  grand  juries 
were  the  source  of  power,  and  much  of  the  time  the 
leading  and  dominating  men  upon  the  grand  jury 
were  from  the  British  settlement,  and  at  all  times 
there  were  representatives  of  that  settlement  upon 
the  grand  jury.  In  like  manner  this  element  was 
prominent  in  the  trial  of  cases  on  the  regular  panel 
of  the  jury  of  the  court,  which  tried  men  indicted 


114  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

for  offenses  against  the  law.  In  matters  of  public 
opinion  in  support  of  the  law,  there  were  a  number 
of  men  in  the  settlement  who  were  very  influential 
and  of  great  value  in  supporting  the  administration 
of  justice.  Particularly  among  these  were  Robert 
Parrett  and  Joseph  Wheeler,  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
whose  careers  formed  a  very  important  part  of  the 
development  of  this  community  for  a  period  of 
thirty  years."23 

Birbeck,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  British  colony 
in  Illinois,  lived  in  Princeton  while  his  colony  was 
being  put  in  shape  for  him.  He  wrote  quite  exten- 
sively his  Notes  on  America.  The  Edinburgh  Re- 
view commented  upon  Birbeck's  Notes  on  America 
as  follows: 

"The  rapidity  with  which  new  settlements  are 
formed  in  this  manner,  is  illustrated  by  Mr.  Bir- 
beck's  whole  book;  but  nothing  tends  more  clearly 
to  show  it  than  the  state  of  society  which  he  found 
in  Princeton,  where  he  took  up  his  abode  while  his 
land  was  preparing  to  receive  him.  This  is  a  small 
town,  placed  at  the  further  limit  of  Indiana,  and 
founded  only  two  years  before  our  author's  arrival. 
It  contained  fifty  houses;  was  the  county  town  of 
the  district;  and  contained  (says  Mr.  B.)  as  many 
'well  informed,  genteel  people,  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  inhabitants,  as  any  county  town  I  am  ac- 
quainted with/  'I  think/  he  adds,  'there  are  half 
as  many  individuals  who  are  entitled  to  that  distinc- 
tion as  there  are  houses;  and  not  one  decidedly  vi- 
cious character,  nor  one  that  is  not  able  and  willing 
to  maintain  himself/  "24  Mr.  John  E.  Iglehart,  who, 
perhaps,  is  the  best  living  authority  on  this  question, 
says  that  the  above  is  the  fairest  written  account 


Court  est/  Mrs.  J.    T.   Hohson, 
Odon,  Iihdiana. 

Major    J.     B.    Merwin,    who 

was  associated  with  Abraham 

Lincoln  in  their  fight  for 

prohibition 


ourtesy  Judge  Itoscoe  Kiper,  Boonville,  Indiana. 

Entrance  to  Lincoln  Park,  burial  place  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln. 
Lincoln  City,  Indiana 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  115 

that  he  has  seen  of  the  common  people  of  Southern 
Indiana  of  the  period  of  our  study.  The  above  de- 
scription is  that  of  the  people  of  a  neighborhood  ad- 
joining the  Lincoins  and  at  a  time  when  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  nine  years  of  age. 

Judge  James  Hall,  who  spent  his  life  among  the 
pioneer  people  of  the  West,  has  written  a  number 
of  books  on  western  life.  In  his  Romance  of  West- 
ern History  he  substantiates  what  Birbeck  has  said 
about  the  early  pioneers  of  Southern  Indiana.  Nor 
are  we  still  wanting  in  additional  proof.  Rev.  Isaac 
Reid,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  lived  in  Southern  In- 
diana from  about  1818  to  1828.  He  describes  the 
people  of  his  section  as  intelligent  and  cultured  and 
the  equal  in  intellectual  attainments  of  any  people 
of  the  old  Northwest.25 

The  British  settlers  at  Saunders ville,  forty  miles 
west  of  Lincoln's  home,  and  those  at  Blue  Grass, 
thirty  miles  west  of  his  home,  brought  with  them 
a  great  many  books  of  English  prose  and  poetry — 
those  of  Moore,  Campbell,  Scott,  Burns,  Shakes- 
peare. Lincoln  had  every  opportunity  to  know  of 
these  libraries  and  the  author  believes  that  he  not 
only  knew  of  them  but  that  he  made  use  of  them. 
"Very  recently  there  came  into  the  custody  of  Mrs. 
Bertha  Cox  Amstrong  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
library  of  James  Cawson,  a  civil  engineer  and  school 
teacher  from  London,  who  brought  into  the  English 
settlement  in  1818  a  library  from  England,  to  which 
he  added  continuously  while  in  America.  This  li- 
brary has  been  donated  to  the  Vanderburgh  County 
Museum  and  Historical  Society.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Arm- 
strong is  a  great-grand-daughter  of  George  Potts, 
who  married  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Cawson.  .  .  ."2fi 


116 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


James  Anthony  established  a  mill  in  the  Lincoln 
neighborhood  that  was  sold  to  a  Mr.  Negley  about 
1819.  The  mill  became  more  or  less  of  a  social  cen- 
ter for  old  and  young  of  both  sexes.  The  owners 
of  the  mill  kept  a  list  of  its  patrons  and  in  the  list 
are  found  the  names  of  many  of  the  people  from 
the  British  settlement.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
young  Lincoln  came  into  contact  with  those  people 
at  the  mill.27    Luke  Grant,  a  member  of  the  British 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

The  Lincoln  Mill  near  his  Indiana  home 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  117 

settlement,  built  a  mill  at  Millersburgh  in  1825,  not 
far  from  the  Lincoln  home.  And  is  it  not  likely  that 
Lincoln  found  himself  going  to  this  mill  quite  often 
and  talking  to  Mr.  Grant?  We  can  readily  believe 
that  in  this  way,  Lincoln  came  to  know  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  British  settlement,  and  knowing  of  them, 
found  occasion  to  go  to  their  homes  and  read  from 
their  libraries.28 

The  English  settlement  was  known  to  the  read- 
ers of  the  Evansville  Gazette,  for  that  paper  carried 
a  notice  of  a  public  dinner  to  be  held  at  the  home  of 
Samuel  Scott  in  the  English  settlement,  the  purpose 
of  which  was  to  celebrate  "with  becoming  spirit  the 
glorious  independence  of  America."29  The  Evans- 
ville Gazette  circulated  in  Lincoln's  neighborhood 
and  thus  we  record  another  possible  way  for  Lin- 
coln to  become  acquainted  with  the  intellectual  men 
of  the  British  settlement. 

The  pioneers  of  the  settlement  began,  in  1822, 
to  meet  each  Saturday  afternoon  at  the  home  of 
Mr.  Hornbrook  for  the  purpose  of  reading  and  dis- 
cussing papers  on  agriculture  and  kindred  subjects. 
Speaking  of  these  meeting  Mr.  Hornbrook  wrote: 
"It  was  the  intention  to  hold  more  general  meetings 
the  next  year,  for  the  county,  to  a  greater  extent."30 
We  doubt  not  that  Congressman  Ratliff  Boone 
knew  of  these  meetings  as  they  were  held  from  year 
to  year  and,  perhaps,  if  in  no  other  way,  Lincoln 
learned  of  them  from  him. 

The  Owenite  Settlement 

Fifty  miles  west  of  the  Lincoln  home  was  the 
town  of  New  Harmony  in  Posey  County.  In  1825 
Robert  Owen  of  Scotland  purchased  the  town  site 


118  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

together  with  thousands  of  acres  of  adjacent  land 
from  a  religious  society — the  Rappites.  Owen,  who 
is  known  as  the  father  of  English  Socialism,  pro- 
posed to  establish  a  "New  Social  Order"  in  the  New 
World — a  communistic  society.  He  gathered  about 
him  many  brilliant  and  learned  people,  especially 
scientists.  Owen  and  his  followers  came  down  the 
Ohio  River  on  their  boat,  "The  Philanthropist/'  in 
January,  1826,  at  the  very  time  Lincoln  was  run- 
ning the  ferry  across  the  river  at  the  mouth  of  An- 
derson creek.  The  Owenites  made  special  efforts  to 
"sell"  their  plan  to  the  people  of  the  countryside. 
They  printed  and  scattered  pamphlets,  sent  out 
agents,  and  published  material  in  The  New  Har- 
mony Gazette  which  was  circulated  far  and  wide. 
That  this  paper  reached  Lincoln's  neighborhood  we 
cannot  doubt,  for  in  1822  a  highway  was  built  from 
New  Harmony  to  Boonville,  centering  at  Saunders- 
ville.  Then,  too,  considering  the  river  traffic,  fifty 
miles  was  a  short  distance  to  a  pioneer  or  to  a  propa- 
gandist. For  five  years  the  Owenites  kept  up  their 
propaganda,  stressing  free,  universal  education,  and 
social,  religious,  and  political  freedom. 

Let  us  say  in  passing  that  Robert  Owen  gave  in 
a  material  and  substantial  way  his  noble  ideals  to 
the  Old  World  by  the  establishment  of  Infant  Schools 
in  Scotland  in  1799.  There  in  New  Lanark  he  set 
up  schools  for  the  poor  children  who  worked  for  him 
in  his  factories.  He  sought  to  give  them  an  educa- 
tion— moral,  physical,  and  intellectual  training — to 
prevent  them  from  becoming  men  and  women 
steeped  in  ignorance.  In  1816  Owen's  Infant  School 
idea  was  transplanted  to  the  United  States  and  in  a 
few  years'  time  New  England  towns  were  estab- 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  119 

lishing  Infant  Schools  open  the  year  round  and  ad- 
mitting children  at  the  age  of  four. 

A  mere  enumeration  of  the  names  of  the  men 
and  women  who  came  to  New  Harmony  on  "The 
Philanthropist"  justifies  the  name — "The  Boat  Load 
of  Knowledge:" 
Robert  Owen,  founder  of  the  community  of  New 

Harmony. 
Robert  Dale  Owen,  oldest  son,  statesman. 
William  Maclure,  geologist,  philanthropist. 
Thomas  Say,  naturalist,  zoologist. 
Charles  Alexander  Lesueur,  artist,  scientist. 
Gerard  Troost,  geologist. 
William    Phiquepal    d'A  r  u  s  m  o  n  t,    Pestalozzian 

teacher. 
Mme.  Marie  Duclos  Fretageot,  Pestalozzian  teacher. 
Achille  Emery  Fretageot,  her  son. 
Dr.  Samuel  Chase,  chemist. 
Mrs.  Chase,  his  wife,  artist. 

Oliver  Evans,  Jr.,  made  first  cast  plows  in  Indiana. 
John  Beal,  cabinet  maker. 
Mrs.  John  Beal,  his  wife. 
Baby  daughter  (afterwards  Mrs.  Caroline  Lichten- 

berger) . 
Pierre  Lazare  Duclos,  nephew  of  Mme.  Fretageot. 
Virginia   Poulard    Dupalais,   beautiful    member   of 

society. 
Victor  Dupalais,  her  brother  from  Philadelphia. 
Cornelius  Tiebout,  printer  and  engraver. 
Caroline  Tiebout,  his  daughter. 
John  Speakman  and  family,  scientist. 
Capt.  Donald  MacDonald,  admirer  of  Mr.  Owen. 
Miss  Lucy  Way  Sistaire  (Mrs.  Thomas  Say),  artist. 
Two  little  sisters,  pupils  of  Mme.  Fretageot. 


120  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Amedie  Defour,  pupil  of  A.  P.  cTArusmont  in  Paris. 
Charles  Balque,  pupil  of  A.  P.  cTArusmont  in  Paris. 
Alexis  cTArusmont,  pupil  of  A.  P.  cTArusmont  in 

Paris. 
Allen  Ward,  larger  pupil,  afterwards  a  teacher. 
Mark  Penrose,  larger  pupil,  afterwards  a  teacher. 
Belthazar  Obernasser,  Swiss  artist. 

Space  will  not  permit  a  detailed  account  of  these 
famous  men  and  women,  who  became  Lincoln's 
neighbors,  but  in  order  to  prove  our  contention  that 
Lincoln  did  not  live  in  the  cramped  cultural  environ- 
ment as  pictured  by  Eggleston,  Hall,  Herndon, 
Weik,  Lamon,  and  others,  we  are  justified  in  setting 
forth  in  the  appendix  a  brief  account  of  a  few  of 
them. 

Did  Lincoln  know  of  the  Owenite  Settlement? 
Dennis  Hanks  says  he  did  and  he  speaks  of  the  mat- 
ter in  the  following  words:  "When  Abe  was  about 
seventeen,  somethin'  happened  that  druv  him  nigh 
crazy.  Thar  was  a  feller  come  over  from  England 
— Britisher,  I  reckon — an*  spoke  in  Congress  about 
a  settlemint  he  was  goin'  to  lay  out  on  the  Wabash, 
buyin'  out  some  loony  Dutch  religious  fellers  that 
had  mills  an'  schools  thar.  Now,  mebbe  you  think 
'at  us  folks  livin'  in  the  backwoods  didn't  know  what 
was  goin'  on  in  the  world.  Well,  you'd  be  mighty 
mistaken  about  that.  We  kep'  track  o'  Congress  fur 
one  thing.  Thar  wasn't  much  to  talk  about  but  poly- 
tics,  an'  we  thrashed  over  everything  in  argymints 
at  the  cross-roads  stores.  .  .  .  Polytics  had  sort  o' 
followed  us  over  the  Gap  trail  an'  roosted  in  the 
clearin's.  Thar  was  Henry  Clay  in  Kaintucky  an' 
Old  Hick'ry  in  Tennessee,  at  it  tooth  an'  nail,  an'  we 
all  tuk  sides. 


INTELLECTUAL  ENVIRONMENT  121 

So  when  this  furrin  feller  spoke  in  Congress 
about  the  gyarden  o'  Eden  he  was  goin'  to  fence  in 
on  the  Wabash,  we  soon  heerd  about  it.  Boats 
brung  news  every  week.  An'  one  day  arly  in  win- 
ter, a  big  keel-boat  come  down  from  Pittsburgh  over 
the  Ohio.  They  called  it  'the  boatload  o'  knowledge/ 
it  had  sich  a  passel  o'  books  an'  machines  an'  men 
o'  larnin'  on  it.  Then  little  rowboats  an'  rafts 
crossed  over  from  Kaintucky,  an'  ox  teams  an*  pack- 
horses  went  through  Gentryville  an*  struck  across 
kentry  to — to — plague  on  it!  Abe'd  tell  you  in  a 
minute — 

"New  Harmony,  Robert  Owen's  colony  ?"  sug- 
gested the  interviewer. 

"That's  it!  Thar  wasn't  sca'cely  anything  else 
talked  about  fur  a  spell.  .  .  . 

"Denny,  thar's  a  school  an'  thousands  o'  books 
thar,  an'  fellers  that  knows  everything  in  creation,' 
he'd  say,  his  eyes  as  big  'n'  hungry  as  a  hootowl's."31 

Perhaps  this  hungry  boy  feasted  more  on  the 
knowledge  of  Robert  Owen's  settlement  than  the 
world  knows.  The  ideals  of  Robert  Owen  became 
the  ideals  of  Lincoln,  and  there  is  no  doubt  in  the 
writer's  mind  that  Owen's  "New  Social  Order"  sank 
deep  into  the  mind  of  the  Emancipator — for  his 
greatest  work  in  life  was  to  give  to  the  world  a  new 
social  order — one  built  not  upon  the  theory  that 
"might  makes  right"  but  upon  the  "Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man."  The  author 
likewise  believes  that  young  Lincoln  learned  from 
the  Pestalozzian  teachers  of  the  Owenite  settlement 
the  beautiful  sentiment  of  Pestalozzi  who  strove  to 
substitute  for  the  brutal  discipline  of  the  school- 
room— and  the  world — a  loving  discipline. 


122  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

The  author  has  been  engaged  for  the  past  sev- 
eral years  in  research  work,  which,  when  success- 
fully completed,  as  he  now  knows  it  will  be,  will 
prove  beyond  any  question  of  a  doubt  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  not  only  knew  of  the  Owenite  Settlement  at 
New  Harmony  but  that  he  read  the  books  of  its  li- 
brary and  became  acquainted  with  the  teachings  of 
its  great  men.  The  author  is  not  quite  ready  to  give 
his  discoveries  to  the  public  in  this  work  but  will 
do  so  in  a  later  book — The  Education  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  Indiana. 

Lincoln's  physical  environment  seems  to  have 
been  as  poorly  understood  and  appreciated  by  his 
early  biographers  as  was  his  human  environment. 
He  said  in  later  life  that  he  had  read  every  book 
that  he  could  get  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  of 
his  home.  Within  this  radius  were  several  cities  of 
culture  —  Vincennes,  Evansville,  Princeton,  New 
Harmony,  Boonville,  Rockport,  Troy,  and  Corydon, 
the  capital  of  Indiana  until  1825.  In  these  cities 
lived  many  cultured  people  with  books  and  libraries. 
Lincoln's  access  to  these  cities  was  relatively  good. 
From  1824  on  there  was  a  stage  coach  running  from 
Evansville  through  Princeton  to  Vincennes,  making 
a  trip  each  way  once  a  week.  There  were  public 
roads  from  Princeton  to  New  Harmony;  from 
Evansville  to  Boonville;  from  Evansville  to  Prince- 
ton and  Vincennes  through  Saundersville,  the  seat 
of  the  British  settlement;  from  Evansville  to  New 
Harmony;  from  Corydon  to  Evansville,  passing  by 
the  Lincoln  farm  and  through  the  present  town  of 
Gentryville.  In  1822  a  road  was  built  from  New 
Harmony  to  Boonville,  extending  from  the  Warrick 
County  line  to  the  Posey  County  line. 


CHAPTER  X 
LINCOLN  AS  A  WRITER 

Character  of  His  Writings 

"Fate  that  is  given  to  all  men  partly  shaped 
Is  man's  to  alter  till  he  die." 

— John  Masefield. 

As  a  young  man  in  Indiana  Abraham  Lincoln 
not  only  read  a  great  deal  but  he  wrote  some.  He 
wrote  an  essay  upon  kindness  to  animals  and  an- 
other upon  the  horrors  of  war,  influenced,  no  doubt, 
by  the  material  he  had  read  in  the  Kentucky  Precep- 
tor and  the  "Old  Blue  Back."  Surely  those  Indiana 
school  books  left  a  deep  impress  upon  Abraham  Lin- 
coln and  helped  to  mold  his  life.  Who  knows  but 
that  his  inaugural  addresses  and  his  famous  Gettys- 
burg Address  have  their  roots  deeply  buried  in  those 
old  Hoosier  readers.  It  might  be  well  today  if  our 
schools  were  supplied  with  material  that  would  edu- 
cate the  heart  more,  as  well  as  the  head  and  hand ! 

Not  far  from  Lincoln's  home  lived  a  neighbor, 
William  Wood,  who  was  a  subscriber  for  two  papers 
— one  a  political  paper  and  the  other  a  temperance 
and  religious  publication.  Lincoln  borrowed  the 
the  papers  and  read  them  carefully  and  thought- 
fully. The  influence  of  the  temperance  paper  upon 
Lincoln  was  undoubtedly  great,  for  we  know  that 
he  was  a  strong  temperance  advocate,  who  never 
drank,  yet  who  lived  at  a  time  when  drinking  was 
an  almost  universal  custom,  even  among  women  and 
ministers.  Lincoln  believed  so  strongly  in  temper- 
ance that  he  wrote  an  article  on  that  subject  and 

123 


124  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

showed  it  to  Mr.  Wood  who  said  "for  sound  sense  it 
was  better  than  anything  in  the  paper."  The  article 
made  such  a  favorable  impression  upon  Aaron 
Farmer,  a  local  preacher,  that  he  sent  it  to  a  tem- 
perance journal  in  Ohio  where  it  was  accepted  and 
published.1 

As  Lincoln  borrowed  and  read  "Uncle  Wood's" 
temperance  journal  and  was  influenced  by  it  to 
write  an  article  on  temperance,  so  from  William 
Jones,  the  Gentryville  storekeeper,  he  borrowed  and 
read  the  Louisville  Journal  and  through  it  was  influ- 
enced to  write  an  article  on  National  Politics.  The 
following  excerpts  are  taken  from  Lincoln's  article : 
"The  American  government  is  the  best  form  of  gov- 
ernment for  an  intelligent  people;  it  ought  to  be 
kept  sound  and  preserved  forever.  .  .  .  General  edu- 
cation should  be  fostered  and  carried  all  over  the 
country;  and  the  Constitution  should  be  saved,  the 
Union  perpetuated  and  the  laws  revered,  respected, 
and  enforced."2 

Young  Lincoln  showed  his  writing  to  "Uncle 
Wood,"  who  in  turn,  showed  it  to  Judge  John  Pit- 
cher of  Rockport,  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  South- 
ern Indiana.  Upon  reading  the  article,  Judge  Pit- 
cher said :  "The  world  can't  beat  it."  When  "Uncle 
Wood"  told  Lincoln  what  Pitcher  had  said  about  his 
production,  the  young  writer  was  highly  elated.  He 
decided  to  call  on  Judge  Pitcher  and  later  did  so. 
Pitcher  took  a  decided  interest  in  Lincoln.  His  in- 
fluence upon  him  is  traced  in  another  section  of  this 
book. 

In  his  first  political  campaign  in  Illinois,  two 
years  after  leaving  Indiana,  Lincoln,  in  1832,  came 
out  boldly  in  a  circular  for  an  education  for  all  the 


LINCOLN  AS  A  WRITER  125 

people,  no  matter  how  poor,  sufficient  to  enable  them 
"to  read  the  Scriptures  and  other  works,  both  of  a 
moral  and  religious  nature,  for  themselves.,,  Surely 
his  Indiana  training,  both  in  an  educational  and  re- 
ligious way,  is  evident  here. 

Lincoln  wrote  several  little  ditties  and  jingles, 
among  them  the  following  lines  about  Johny  Konga- 
pod,  a  Kickapoo  Indian,  who  was  supposed  to  have 
them  for  an  epitaph : 

"Here  lies  poor  Johny  Kongapod; 
Have  mercy  on  him,  gracious  God, 
As  he  would  do  if  he  was  God, 
And  you  were  Johny  Kongapod."3 

In  the  same  copy-book  in  which  Abe  wrote  the 
lines:  "Abraham  Lincoln 

his  hand  and  pen 
he  will  be  good  but 
god  knows  When" 

appears  the  following  written  at  a  later  date: 

"Time !    What  an  empty  vapor  'tis ! 

And  days  how  swift  they  are ! 

Swift  as  an  Indian  arrow, 

Fly  on  like  a  shooting-star. 

The  present  moment  just  is  here, 

Then  slides  away  in  haste, 

That  we  can  never  say  they're  ours, 

But  only  say  are  past."4 
Lincoln's  sister,  Sarah,  had  married  Aaron 
Grigsby,  but  the  relation  between  him  and  the 
Grigsbys  was  not  very  friendly.  His  sister  died  of 
childbirth  in  1828,  within  two  years  of  her  mar- 
riage. In  April,  1829,  Reuben  and  Charles  Grigsby, 
brothers  of  Aaron  Grigsby,  married  Betsy  Ray  and 


126  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Matilda  Hawkins,  respectively.  The  older  Grigsbys, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Reuben  Grigsby,  gave  a  great  infare 
to  their  sons  and  daughters-in-law.  It  was  an  old- 
fashioned  feast  and  dance  and  they  indulged  also  in 
the  ancient  custom  of  putting  the  bridal  party  to 
bed.  To  this  great  event  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not 
invited.  He  felt  the  sting  of  the  slight  so  much  that 
he  gave  way  to  satire  and  sarcasm  and  wrote  in  a 
rude  scriptural  style  what  he  called  "The  First 
Chronicles  of  Reuben."  They  are  printed  in  Hern- 
don's  Lincoln. 

Abe's  wit  and  satire  in  writing  found  rich  fields 
in  the  various  happenings  of  the  neighborhood.  He 
wrote  about  a  church  trial  in  which  Brother  Harper 
and  Sister  Gordon  were  seeking  judgment.  The  ar- 
ticle has  been  pronounced  "exceedingly  humorous 
and  witty"  and  received  a  warm  reception  and  a 
coarse  laugh  by  the  rustics  at  Jones's  grocery  store 
and  Baldwin's  blacksmith  shop.5. 

Lincoln  did  not  like  Josiah  Crawford  any  too 
well,  for  Crawford  made  him  pull  fodder  two  days 
to  pay  for  Weems's  Life  of  Washington,  and  often 
"docked"  him  whenever  he  lost  time  at  his  work. 
But  Abe  evened  up  matters  with  "old  Cy"  by  making 
his  nose  come  down  in  history.  Crawford's  nose 
was  exceedingly  large  and  crooked  and  was  more 
or  less  blue.  Upon  this  nose,  Lincoln  cast  his  satire, 
making  his  attack  in  "Chronicles"  and  in  song — 
with  the  net  result  that  Josiah  Crawford  became 
known  far  and  wide  as  old  "Blue  Nose." 

Until  quite  recently  it  has  been  generally  be- 
lieved that  young  Lincoln  wrote  the  following  song, 
and  that  the  Lincoln  family  sang  it  at  the  wedding 
of  Sarah  Lincoln  and  Aaron  Grigsby  in  1826 :8 


LINCOLN  AS  A  WRITER  127 

Adam  and  Eve's  Wedding  Song 

"When  Adam  was  created 
He  dwelt  in  Eden's  shade, 
As  Moses  has  recorded, 
And  soon  an  Eve  was  made. 

Ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand 
Of  creatures  swarmed  around 
Before  a  bride  was  formed, 
And  yet  no  mate  was  found. 

The  Lord  then  was  not  willing 
The  man  should  be  alone, 
But  caused  a  sleep  upon  him, 
And  took  from  him  a  bone. 

And  closed  the  flesh  in  that  place  of; 
And  then  he  took  the  same, 
And  of  it  made  a  woman, 
And  brought  her  to  the  man. 

Then  Adam  he  rejoiced 
To  see  his  loving  bride, — 
A  part  of  his  own  body, 
The  product  of  his  side. 

This  woman  was  not  taken 
From  Adam's  feet,  we  see; 
So  he  must  not  abuse  her, 
The  meaning  seems  to  be. 

This  woman  was  not  taken 
From  Adam's  head,  we  know; 
To  show  she  must  not  rule  him, 
'Tis  evidently  so. 


128  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

This  woman  she  was  taken 
From  under  Adam's  arm ; 
So  she  must  be  protected 
From  injuries  and  harm." 

But  now  we  are  assured  that  young  Lincoln  is 
not  the  author  of  the  above  poem.  John  E.  Iglehart 
of  Evansville,  Indiana,  says  that  he  remembers  his 
mother  reciting  all  of  the  above  poem,  and  to  make 
sure  that  his  memory  had  not  failed  him  he  had 
three  other  people — who  were  brought  up  in  his 
home — corroborate  him.  Mr.  Iglehart's  mother  was 
born  in  England  in  1817  and  at  the  age  of  five  came 
with  her  widowed  mother  to  the  British  settlement 
at  Saundersville,  in  Southern  Indiana.  His  mother 
in  her  youth  had  learned  to  recite  the  English  nur- 
sery rhymes  and  the  poems  of  Campbell,  Moore,  and 
Burns.  Among  the  poems  that  she  learned  was  the 
above  which  Herndon  says  was  given  to  him  by  Mrs. 
Josiah  Crawford,  who  believed  young  Lincoln  had 
written  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Lincoln  had  recited 
it  to  Mrs.  Crawford  but  he  was  not  its  author.  How 
did  he  come  in  possession  of  it?  In  the  light  of  Mr. 
Iglehart's  statements,  would  it  not  be  reasonable  to 
say  that  Lincoln  must  have  heard  it  either  directly 
or  indirectly  from  some  of  the  people  of  the  British 
settlement  or  he  must  have  read  it  from  some  of 
their  books?  If  this  is  so,  then  Lincoln  did  come  in 
contact  with  the  people  of  this  settlement  and  knew 
of  their  splendid  libraries  of  the  finest  English  prose 
and  poetry.  And  knowing  of  these  libraries  are  we 
not  to  suppose  that  he  availed  himself  of  their  use, 
hungry  as  he  was  for  knowledge  V 

Young  Lincoln  wrote  a  bit  of  romance  once.    The 
setting  of  the  story  is  found  in  an  accident  that  hap- 


LINCOLN  AS  A  WRITER  129 

pened  to  some  settlers  who  were  passing  the  Lin- 
coln home.  Lincoln,  in  later  years,  told  the  story  in 
the  following  words  to  Mr.  T.  W.  S.  Kidd,  editor  of 
the  "Morning  Monitor"  of  Springfield,  Illinois: 

"Did  you  ever  write  out  a  story  in  your  mind? 
I  did  when  I  was  a  little  codger.  One  day  a  wagon 
with  a  lady  and  two  girls  and  a  man  broke  down 
near  us,  and  while  they  were  fixing  up,  they  cooked 
in  our  kitchen.  The  woman  had  books  and  read  us 
stories,  and  they  were  the  first  I  had  ever  heard. 
I  took  a  great  fancy  to  one  of  the  girls;  and  when 
they  were  gone  I  thought  of  her  a  great  deal,  and 
one  day  when  I  was  sitting  out  in  the  sun  by  the 
house  I  wrote  out  a  story  in  my  mind.  I  thought 
I  took  my  father's  horse  and  followed  the  wagon, 
and  finally  I  found  it,  and  they  were  surprised  to 
see  me.  I  talked  with  the  girl  and  persuaded  her 
to  elope  with  me;  and  that  night  I  put  her  on  my 
horse,  and  we  started  off  across  the  prairie.  After 
several  hours  we  came  to  a  camp;  and  when  we 
rode  up  we  found  it  was  the  one  we  had  left  a  few 
hours  before,  and  we  went  in.  The  next  night  we 
tried  again,  and  the  same  thing  happened — the 
horse  came  back  to  the  same  place;  and  then  we 
concluded  we  ought  not  to  elope.  I  stayed  until  I 
persuaded  her  father  to  give  her  to  me.  I  always 
meant  to  write  that  story  out  and  publish  it,  and  I 
began  once;  but  I  concluded  that  it  was  not  much 
of  a  story.  But  I  think  that  was  the  beginning  of 
love  with  me."8  Thus,  with  many  other  things,  love 
began  with  Abraham  Lincoln  in  his  childhood  days 
in  Southern  Indiana. 

Not  only  during  his  boyhood  days  but  through- 
out his  life  Lincoln  wrote  rhymes  and  verses.     In 


130  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

1844  he  was  a  Presidential  elector  on  the  Whig 
ticket.  During  the  campaign  he  visited  Spencer 
County,  Indiana,  and  made  speeches  in  behalf  of 
Henry  Clay,  the  Whig  candidate  for  President.  On 
this  occasion  he  visited  the  graves  of  his  mother 
and  sister  in  Spencer  County  and  shortly  afterwards 
wrote  this  poem: 

"My  childhood's  home  I  see  again, 

And  sadden  with  the  view; 
And  still  as  memory  crowds  my  brain, 

There's  pleasure  in  it,  too. 

"0  Memory !    Thou  midway  world, 

'Twixt  earth  and  paradise, 
Where  things  decayed  and  loved  ones  lost, 

In  dreamy  shadows  rise. 

"And,  freed  from  all  that's  earthly,  vile, 

Seem  hallowed,  pure  and  bright, 
Like  scenes  in  some  enchanted  isle, 

All  bathed  in  liquid  light. 

"As  dusky  mountains  please  the  eye, 

When  twilight  chases  day; 
As  bugle  notes  that,  passing  by, 

In  distance  die  away ; 

"As  leaving  some  grand  waterfall, 

We,  lingering,  list  its  roar ; 
So  memory  will  hallow  all 

We've  known,  but  know  no  more. 

"Near  twenty  years  have  passed  away, 

Since  here  I  bid  farewell 
To  woods  and  fields,  and  scenes  of  play, 

And  playmates  loved  so  well; 


LINCOLN  AS  A  WRITER  131 

"Where  many  were,  but  few  remain, 

Of  old,  familiar  things ; 
But  seeing  them  to  mind  again 

The  lost  and  absent  brings. 

"The  friends  I  left  that  parting  day, 

How  changed !  as  time  has  sped 
Young  childhood  grown,  strong  manhood  gray, 

And  half  of  all  are  dead. 

"I  hear  the  loud  survivors  tell 

How  naught  from  death  could  save, 

Till  every  sound  appears  a  knell, 
And  every  spot  a  grave. 

"I  range  the  fields  with  pensive  tread, 

And  pace  the  hollow  rooms, 
And  feel  (companions  of  the  dead), 

I'm  living  in  the  tombs." 

Young  Lincoln  never  was  a  singer  although  he 
liked  music  very  much.  He  was  always  glad  to  have 
Dennis  Hanks  or  some  one  else  sing  for  him.  And 
Dennis  was  always  willing,  especially  if  he  had 
stayed  too  long  at  the  grocery  store  and  partaken 
too  freely  of  the  ever-flowing  beverage.  In  later 
years  Lincoln  told  Herndon  that  he  doubted  that  "he 
really  knew  what  the  harmony  of  sound  was."  At 
the  Little  Pigeon  Creek  Church,  Lincoln  joined  in 
the  singing  as  best  he  could.  The  songs  were  from 
Watt's  and  Dupuy's  hymn  books  and  included  such 
titles  as  these :  "Am  I  a  Soldier  of  the  Cross,"  "How 
Tedious  and  Tasteless  the  Hours,"  "There  is  a  Foun- 
tain Filled  with  Blood,"  and  "Alas,  and  did  my  Sav- 
iour Bleed?"9 


132  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Abe  sang  the  following  song,  "John  Anderson's 
Lamentations,"  in  which  it  is  believed  he  interpo- 
lated some  of  his  own  lines : 

"0  sinners!  poor  sinners,  take  warning  by  me: 
The  fruits  of  transgression  behold  now,  and  see; 
My  soul  is  tormented,  my  body  confined, 
My  friends  and  dear  children  left  weeping  behind. 

"Much  intoxication  my  ruin  has  been, 
And  my  dear  companion  hath  barbarously  slain; 
In  yonder  cold  graveyard,  the  body  doth  lie ; 
Whilst  I  am  condemned,  and  shortly  must  die. 

"Remember  John  Anderson's  death,  and  reform 
Before  death  overtakes  you,  and  vengeance  comes  on. 
My  grief's  overwhelming;  in  God  I  must  trust: 
I  am  justly  condemned;  my  sentence  is  just. 

"I  am  waiting  the  summons  in  eternity  to  be  hurled ; 
Whilst  my  poor  little  orphans  are  cast  on  the  world. 
I  hope  my  kind  neighbors  their  guardians  will  be, 
And  Heaven,  kind  Heaven,  protect  them  and  me."10 


CHAPTER  XI 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  RELIGION 

His  Early  Home  Training 

"There  lies  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

— Tennyson. 

Lincoln  was  brought  up  by  parents  who  lived 
during  the  time  of  the  great  camp  meetings  as  con- 
ducted by  Peter  Cartwright.  His  parents  were 
deeply  religious  and  worshipped  God  and  read  his 
Word.  The  Bible  was  Lincoln's  great  book  in  his 
youth  and  it  remained  so  all  through  his  life.  Build- 
ing a  life  upon  the  Bible  and  prayer,  it  is  no  won- 
der that  Philip  Brooks  could  later  say  that  in  Lin- 
coln was  "vindicated  the  greatness  of  real  goodness 
and  the  goodness  of  real  greatness. "* 

The  family  altar  in  the  Lincoln  home  was  never 
taken  down.  Regardless  of  what  was  on  the  table, 
not  a  meal  was  ever  eaten  in  the  Lincoln  cabin  that 
thanks  were  not  returned  by  Thomas  or  Nancy  Lin- 
coln or  Sarah  Bush  Lincoln.  One  day  during  those 
"pinching  times"  when  potatoes  were  the  only  food 
served  and  his  father  had  returned  thanks,  young 
Abe  spoke  up  and  said:  "Dad,  I  call  these  mighty 
poor  blessings."2 

Speaking  of  the  influence  of  the  Bible  upon 
Abraham  Lincoln  Mr.  L.  E.  Chittenden  says:  "Ex- 
cept the  instructions  of  his  mother,  the  Bible  more 
powerfully  controlled  the  intellectual  development 
of  the  son  than  all  other  causes  combined.  He  mem- 
orized many  of  its  chapters  and  had  them  perfectly 

133 


134  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

at  his  command.  Early  in  his  professional  life  he 
learned  that  the  most  useful  of  all  books  to  the  public 
speaker  was  the  Bible.  After  1857  he  seldom  made 
a  speech  which  did  not  contain  quotations  from  the 
Bible."3 

"Thus  even  before  he  came  into  his  'teens,  Lin- 
coln had  developed  a  mature  sense  of  responsibility 
to  God,  which  never  failed  to  find  expression  in  rev- 
erent obedience  to  God's  laws  as  he  understood  them ; 
of  responsibility  to  man  in  every  relationship  of  life, 
particularly  to  his  kindly  father  and  his  two  devoted 
mothers,  alike  motherly  to  him  and  consecrated  to 
his  upbringing  in  "the  fear  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord."4 

"The  spirit  life  of  the  Bible  was  built  into 
Lincoln's  boyhood,  expanded  in  his  young  manhood, 
ripened  in  his  middle  age,  sustained  him  when  sor- 
rows seared  his  soul,  and  gave  to  him  a  grip  upon 
God,  man,  freedom,  and  immortality.  The  influence 
of  the  Bible  upon  him  gave  him  reverence  for  God 
and  his  will ;  for  Christianity  and  its  Christ ;  for  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  its  help ;  for  prayer  and  its  power ; 
for  praise  and  its  purpose ;  for  the  immortal  impulse 
and  its  inspiration."5 

"We  see  in  Lincoln's  deep  religious  nature  the 
effect  of  his  early  training,  and  in  those  direct  ap- 
peals to  and  communications  with  God  we  see  not 
only  an  abiding  faith  and  trust  in  God  but  also 
something  of  the  spirit  of  revival,  the  intense  reli- 
gious emotionalism  of  those  great  meetings  of  his 
boyhood  out  of  which  came  much  of  definite  convic- 
tion, of  faith  and  of  trust  in  God."6 

So  thoroughly  was  the  importance  of  the  reading 
of  the  Bible  impressed  upon  Lincoln's  mind  that  he 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  RELIGION  135 

gave  an  address  before  the  Bible  Society  of  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  in  which  he  advocated  having  the  Bible 
placed  in  the  possession  of  every  family  in  the  state. 
And  no  one  was  better  qualified  to  advocate  this  mea- 
sure ;  the  work  of  Nancy  Lincoln  was  firmly  laid. 

One  of  Lincoln's  favorite  Bible  quotations  was 
from  the  Prophet  Micah :  "What  doth  the  Lord  re- 
quire of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?"  This  bit  of 
Scripture  his  mother  read  to  him;  then  he  read  it 
himself;  then  he  acted  upon  it.  His  whole  life  is 
but  a  review  of  that  teaching  which  this  great  man 
received  in  his  humble  home  in  Southern  Indiana. 
Throughout  his  life  he  loved  justice,  yea,  justice 
tempered  with  mercy.  It  would  require  an  entire 
volume  to  record  his  acts  prompted  by  biblical  lore, 
while  he  was  President  of  the  United  States  during 
the  period  of  the  Civil  War.  He,  who  is  familiar 
with  the  acts  of  this  man  of  God  in  prayer,  knows 
all  too  well  that  he  did  walk  humbly  with  his  God ! 

In  its  foundation  Lincoln's  religious  belief  was 
Calvinistic,  predestinarian ;  the  kind  that  he  heard 
the  preachers  expound  in  the  Little  Pigeon  Creek 
Baptist  Church  in  Spencer  County,  Indiana.  He 
could  not  accept  the  supernatural  birth  of  Christ. 
But  because  he  did  not  accept  all  the  teachings  of 
any  church  is  no  reason  that  he  was  an  infidel  as 
he  has  been  called  by  Herndon.7 

Herndon  is  an  authority,  if  we  needed  any,  that 
the  Baptist  preaching  of  Lincoln's  boyhood  made 
him  a  life-long  fatalist.  He  emerged  into  manhood 
with  the  convictions  that  "whatever  is  to  be  will  be." 
Mrs.  Lincoln  declared  that  this  was  his  answer  to 
threats  concerning  his  assassination;  that  it  had 


136  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

been  his  lifelong  creed  and  continued  still  to  be  the 
ruling  dogma  of  his  life."8 

The  Little  Pigeon  Creek  Baptist  Church 

Abraham  Lincoln  attended  the  Little  Pigeon 
Creek  Baptist  Church  in  Spencer  County,  Indiana. 
He  never  allied  himself  with  that  church  although 
his  father,  his  mother,  his  stepmother,  and  his  sister 
were  Baptists.  Tradition  has  it  he  was  janitor  of 
the  church  but  we  have  no  proof  of  his  being  jani- 
tor. But  we  do  know  that  he  helped  to  build  the 
church  which  was  erected  in  1820  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Thomas  Lincoln  who  was  the  boss  of  the 
carpenters.  Young  Lincoln,  then  eleven  years  old, 
helped  to  fell  the  trees  from  which  the  lumber  was 
made  that  went  into  the  building.  Speaking  of  this 
famous  little  Baptist  Church,  Miss  Ida  D.  Arm- 
strong says: 

"The  church,  which  stood  one  mile  west  of  what 
is  now  Lincoln  City,  was  built  of  logs  with  a  stick 
and  mud  chimney.  It  was  a  long,  narrow  building 
one  and  a  half  stories  high,  having  a  very,  very 
large  fireplace  on  one  side  of  the  building,  with  a 
pulpit  made  of  roughly  hewn  boards.  It  had  a  win- 
dow (with  no  glass  but  heavy  wooden  shutters,  im- 
mediately behind  it)  at  one  end  of  the  structure, 
and  a  ladder  leading  to  the  upper  story  where  the 
people  who  came  great  distances  might  stay  over 
night.  Split  logs,  with  wooden  pegs  for  legs,  and 
a  puncheon  floor,  were  also  features  of  this  church, 
the  logs  of  which  were  sold  and  used  in  the  build- 
ing of  a  barn."9 

That  Lincoln  knew  the  teachings  of  the  little 
Pigeon  Creek  Baptist  Church  we  have  no  doubt; 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  RELIGION  137 

and  that  he  pondered  these  well  we  likewise  have 
no  doubt,  for  certainly  he  connected  them  with  his 
Bible  reading.  On  the  first  page  in  the  minutes- 
book  which  is  in  the  possession  of  Louis  Varner  of 
Boonville,  Indiana,  are  set  down  the  articles  of  faith 
of  his  church : 

"We  believe  in  one  God  the  father  the  word  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  who  hath  created  all  things  that  are 
created  by  the  word  of  his  power  for  his  pleasure. 

"We  believe  the  old  and  new  Testaments  are  the 
word  of  God  and  there  are  everything  contained 
therein  necessary  for  our  salvation  and  rule  of  faith 
and  practice. 

"We  believe  in  the  fall  of  man  in  his  public  head 
and  that  is  incapable  of  recovery  unless  restored 
by  Christ.  .  .  . 

"We  believe  the  righteous  will  persevere  through 
grace  to  glory,  and  none  of  them  finally  fall  away. 

"We  believe  in  a  general  resurrection  of  the  just 
and  unjust  and  the  joys  of  the  righteous  and  the 
punishment  of  the  wicked  are  eternal. 

"We  believe  that  good  works  are  the  fruits  of 
Grace  and  follow  after  justification. 

"We  believe  that  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
are  ordinances  of  Jesus  Christ  and  that  true  believ- 
ers are  the  only  proper  subjects  and  the  only  proper 
mode  of  Baptism  is  immersion. 

"We  believe  the  washing  of  feet  is  a  command 
to  be  complied  with  when  opportunity  serves. 

"We  believe  it  is  our  duty  severally  to  support 
the  Lord's  table  and  that  we  ought  to  administer  the 
Lord's  supper  at  least  twice  a  year. 

"We  believe  that  no  minister  ought  to  preach 
the  gospel,  that  is  not  called  and  sent  of  God,  and 


138 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


^ 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

The  Little  Pigeon  Creek  Church  grave  yard  in 

Spencer   County,   Indiana,   the   burial   place  of 

Lincoln's  sister,  Sarah 

they  are  to  be  proved  by  hearing  them,  and  we  al- 
low of  none  to  preach  amongst  us  but  such  as  are 
well  recommended  and  that  we  ought  to  contribute 
to  him  who  faithfully  labors  among  us  in  word  and 
doctrines  according  to  our  several  abilities  of  our 
temporal  things."10 

Young  Lincoln  did  not  profess  Christianity;  he 
did  not  join  church,  yet  daily  he  read  God's 
Word  and  gave  himself  to  prayer.    He  was  honest 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  RELIGION  130 

and  truthful ;  we  have  the  statements  from  his 
neighbors  that  he  did  not  drink  intoxicating  liquors 
nor  use  tobacco;  he  did  not  gamble;  he  did  not  use 
intemperate  language;  he  was  kind  and  courteous 
to  everything  and  everybody;  no  better  neighbor 
ever  lived;  there  was  no  accommodation  he  would 
not  grant;  there  was  nothing  he  would  not  do  to 
succor  one  in  distress;  he  was  considerate  of  the 
rights  of  others;  he  was  a  friend  of  the  lowly  and 
the  needy ;  he  would  bind  up  the  broken  pinion  of  a 
helpless  bird  as  he  would  care  for  the  wound  of  a 
devoted  friend;  yet  according  to  the  standards  of 
those  times  and  these,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a 
Christian. 


CHAPTER  XII 

LINCOLN  AND  THE  SLAVERY 
QUESTION 

Indiana  Influence 

"One  fire  was  on  his  spirit,  one  resolve — 
To  send  a  keen  ax  to  the  root  of  wrong, 
Clearing  a  free  way  for  the  feet  of  God." 
— Edwin  Markham. 

In  David  Turnham's  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana, 
Lincoln  read  the  Ordinance  of  1787  which  contained 
the  following  section :  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  territory, 
otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crime,  whereof 
a  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted ;  provided  al- 
ways that  any  person  escaping  into  the  same,  from 
whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed  in  any  one 
of  the  original  States,  such  fugitive  may  be  lawfully 
reclaimed  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his 
or  her  labor,  as  aforesaid."  Here  young  Lincoln 
came  into  contact  with  the  slavery  question,  know- 
ing that  slavery  had  been  forbidden  in  the  North- 
west Territory  but  legally  recognized  and  protected 
in  the  original  states  where  it  existed. 

We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  Lincoln 
knew  of  the  preamble  of  the  freedom  papers  of  Ed- 
ward Coles,  issued  July  4,  1819.  Coles  was  a  rich 
Virginia  planter  who  had  an  intense  hatred  for  the 
slavery  system.  He  moved  to  Southern  Illinois,  pur- 
chased a  large  tract  of  land,  returned  to  Virginia, 
sold  his  home  there,  and  in  company  with  his  slaves 
returned  to  Illinois.     On  the  way  he  announced  to 

140 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION       141 

his  slaves  that  they  were  free  and  that  each  family 
was  to  have  a  quarter  section  of  land  that  he  had 
purchased  for  them  and  that  he  was  to  care  for  them 
until  they  got  settled  in  their  homes.  This  story  was 
known  up  and  down  the  Ohio  Valley;  so  much  so 
that  the  anti-slavery  men  never  tired  of  repeating 
the  preamble  of  Cole's  famous  freedom  papers: 
"Not  believing  that  man  can  have  of  right  property 
in  his  fellow  man,  but  that  on  the  contrary  all  man- 
kind are  endowed  by  nature  with  equal  right,  I  do 

therefore  by  these  presents  restore  to that 

inalienable  liberty  of  which  he  (or  she)  has  been 
deprived." 

That  Lincoln  as  a  youth  came  into  contact  with 
anti-slavery  literature  we  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt.  Slavery  and  emancipation  were  live  issues 
in  Southern  Indiana  from  the  time  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  1820.  These  questions  were  being  dis- 
cussed during  those  years  in  which  Lincoln's  mind 
was  inquiring  into  all  phases  of  every  subject  that 
interested  him.  We  feel  sure  that  Judge  Pitcher 
had  talked  with  him  about  the  question  of  slavery. 
Pitcher  took  the  Northern  viewpoint  on  that  subject 
but  at  the  same  time  was  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  Constitution.  From  this  great  jurist  young  Lin- 
coln received  valuable  help  in  his  study  of  the  slav- 
ery question  and  the  relation  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion bore  to  it. 

During  the  years  1822-1824  there  was  carried 
on  in  Illinois  a  strenuous  contest  between  the  pro- 
slavery  and  the  anti-slavery  forces.  Speeches  were 
made  over  the  state;  the  pulpit  took  up  the  fight; 
newspapers  engaged  in  the  struggle;  pamphlets  pro 
and  con  were  printed  and  circulated  far  and  wide. 


142  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

We  may  feel  sure  that  the  echoes  of  this  struggle 
reached  Spencer  County,  Indiana.  In  1816,  Charles 
Osborne  establish  an  abolition  newspaper  in  Ohio. 
Three  years  later  he  started  his  crusade  in  Indiana 
against  the  institution  of  slavery.  Although  In- 
diana entered  the  Union  as  a  free  state  in  1816, 
there  were,  at  the  time  Osborne  began  his  fight 
against  slavery,  one  hundred  and  ninety  slaves  in  the 
state,  most  of  them  in  the  southwestern  part,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Lincolns.  In  1822  the  Aboli- 
tion Intelligencer  was  established  at  Shelbyville, 
about  one  hundred  miles  from  Gentryville.  From 
some  or  all  of  these  sources  Lincoln  came  into  con- 
tact with  the  slavery  question. 

Lincoln's  first  real  insight  into  the  institution  of 
slavery  was  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  He  had  been 
working  as  ferryman  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson 
creek  and  during  his  leisure  hours,  when  not  on  the 
ferry,  he  set  out  and  tended  a  field  of  tobacco,  a 
short  distance  below  the  present  town  of  Troy.  He 
also  built  a  flatboat  on  which  he  expected  to  take 
his  crop  south.  He  refers  to  this  flatboat  in  the 
story  to  his  Cabinet  members  of  how  he  earned  his 
first  dollar.  When  Lincoln  learned  that  a  Mr.  Ray 
was  preparing  to  go  south  with  a  flat  boat  load  of 
produce,  he  struck  up  a  bargain  with  him  by  which 
Ray  was  to  take  Lincoln's  tobacco  and  Lincoln  was 
to  go  along  "at  the  oar."  For  this  information  we 
are  indebted  to  William  Forsythe,  who  was  born  in 
Troy,  Indiana,  and  who  knew  Lincoln  well  when  he 
was  ferryman  at  Anderson  creek.  Mr.  Forsythe 
told  the  story  to  Rev.  Murr,  his  pastor.  Rev.  Murr 
states  that  Jefferson  Ray,  son  of  the  flatboatman, 
substantiated  the  story  as  related  by  Forsythe.1 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION       143 

Two  years  later,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  Lincoln 
made  a  second  trip  down  the  Mississippi  River,  this 
time  with  Allen  Gentry.  Speaking  of  these  river 
trips  Dennis  Hanks  said  during  an  interview  with 
Eleanor  Atkinson :  "It  was  fur  to  git  money  to  buy 
books,  that  Abe  tuk  them  v'yages  on  the  flatboats. 
He  was  all  fur  bein'  a  riverman  fur  a  while.  Tom 
owned  Abe's  time  till  he  was  twenty-one  an*  didn't 
want  him  to  go.  He  was  too  vallyble  fur  chores.  .  .  . 
Well,  him  an'  Abe  struck  up  some  kind  o'  dicker,  an' 
Abe  went  off  down  the  river,  fur  fifty  cents  a  day, 
an'  a  bonus.  It  was  big  wages,  but  he  never  went 
but  twict."2 

In  the  New  Orleans  slave  market  Lincoln  saw 
the  institution  of  slavery  at  close  range.  And  there 
the  iron  went  into  his  blood.  It  is  said  that  he  ex- 
claimed: "If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  thing, 
I  will  hit  it  hard!"  We  cannot  feel  sure  that  Lin- 
coln ever  said  these  words  but  no  doubt  he  was 
moved  and  deeply  stirred  by  what  he  saw.  Com- 
menting on  this  Mr.  Gregg  says:  "Who  was  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  to  hit  the  thing  a  blow?  He  was  only 
a  boatman,  a  splitter  of  rails,  a  teamster,  a  back- 
woodsman. .  .  Why  did  he  utter  these  words?  .  .  . 
Was  it  not  .  .  .  the  mind  and  heart  and  power  of 
God  planted  by  heredity  and  early  training  in  the 
depths  of  his  being  and  abiding  there  with  a  holy 
impatience  waiting  for  the  clock  of  destiny  to 
strike?"3  Yes,  it  was!  The  Bible  readings  by  his 
mother  to  the  lad  at  her  knee  were  striking  home. 
At  a  tender  age  Lincoln  was  already  remembering 
his  mother's  last  words.  And  have  we  not  said  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  wife,  Nancy,  were  steeped 
full  of  Thomas  Jefferson's  ideals  that  all  men  were 


144  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

free  and  equal !  Their  teachings  were  going  home, 
and  with  the  hand  of  God,  were  raising  a  boy  to  be 
the  emancipator  of  a  race.  Surely  the  great  works 
of  Lincoln's  later  life  can  be  traced  back  directly  to 
his  humble  home  in  Southern  Indiana! 

In  the  year  1837  the  Illinois  State  Legislature 
passed  resolutions  disapproving  "of  the  formation 
of  abolition  societies  and  of  the  doctrine  promul- 
gated by  them"  and  also  stating  that  the  Federal 
Constitution  upheld  slavery  in  the  states  where  it 
existed  and  that  Congress  had  no  right  to  "abolish 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  against  the  con- 
sent of  the  citizens  of  said  District."  Lincoln  re- 
fused to  cast  his  vote  for  the  resolutions.  He  be- 
lieved with  the  Illinois  Assembly  that  Congress  had 
no  power  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  states  but 
thought  that  it  did  have  power  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Lincoln  believed  that  all 
public  expressions  of  slavery  should  include  a  state- 
ment that  the  institution  was  wrong.  In  protest  to 
the  resolutions  he  wrote  a  resolution  of  his  own 
which  was  signed  by  himself  and  one  other  member 
of  the  state  legislature:  "They  believe  that  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice  and 
bad  policy,  but  that  the  promulgation  of  abolition 
doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than  abate  its 
evils."4 

Miss  Ida  Tarbell  says  of  the  first  of  the  Lincoln- 
Douglas  debates:  "For  vigor,  compactness,  logic, 
solid  information  one  would  have  to  go  far  to  find 
the  equal  of  this  first  speech  of  Lincoln's  against  the 
extension  of  slavery.  It  is  packed  with  ideas,  satu- 
rated with  familiarity  with  the  history  and  develop- 
ment of  the  thing.    It  is  the  kind  of  expression  that 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION       145 

comes  only  from  long  living  with  a  subject.  It  dem- 
onstrates beyond  question,  it  seems  to  me,  that  Lin- 
coln from  his  boyhood  had  been,  both  consciously 
and  unconsciously,  observing  and  turning  over  the 
exhibits  of  what  he  regarded  as  a  tremendous  na- 
tional wrong/'5 

The  writer  is  convinced  that  young  Lincoln's 
mind  was  made  up  on  the  slavery  question  both  as 
to  its  moral  and  constitutional  aspects  before  he  left 
Indiana.  The  teachings  of  his  father,  his  mother, 
his  stepmother,  Jesse  Head,  the  Bible,  Judge  Pitcher, 
Robert  Owen,  the  abolition  literature,  and  the  con- 
tact with  the  great  and  good  men  of  the  English 
settlement  had  left  a  deep  impress  upon  his  mind. 

Lincoln's  passion  for  that  which  is  true  and 
right — taught  to  him  by  his  mother  as  she  read  the 
Word  of  God — remained  with  him  throughout  his 
life.  It  is  clearly  set  forth  in  his  Cooper  Institute 
speech,  delivered  February  27,  1860:  "If  slavery  is 
right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  constitutions  against 
it  are  themselves  wrong  and  should  be  silenced  and 
swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  object 
to  its  universality.  If  it  is  wrong  they  (pro-slavery 
advocates)  cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension. 
All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we  thought 
slavery  right.  All  we  ask  they  could  readily  grant, 
if  they  thought  it  wrong.  Their  thinking  it  right, 
and  our  thinking  it  wrong,  is  the  precise  fact  upon 
which  depends  the  whole  controversy."6 

When  Rev.  Murr  interviewed  James  Gentry  on 
Lincoln's  views  on  slavery  he  received  the  reply  that 
Lincoln  always  was  against  slavery.7 


CHAPTER  XIII 

LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND 
AVOCATIONS 

Occupations  of  Young  Lincoln 

A  peaceful  life: — to  hear  the  low 

Of  pastured  herds. 
Or  woodman's  axe  that,  blow  on  blow, 

Fell  sweet  as  rhythmic  words. 
And  yet  there  stirred  within  his  breast 

A  faithful  pulse,  that,  like  a  roll 
Of  drums,  made  high  above  his  rest 

A  tumult  in  his  soul. 

— James  Whitcomb  Riley. 

It  has  been  said  that  if  character  is  to  come  to 
its  best  it  must  have  a  sound  physical  basis.  Cer- 
tainly then  Abraham  Lincoln's  character  should  have 
come  to  its  best  for  he  was  given  a  strong  body  filled 
with  ^  3  i  blood.  Lincoln  was  perhaps  the  strongest 
man  in  Southern  Indiana.  We  have  two  bits  of  evi- 
dence to  show  this.  William  Richardson  and  some 
other  men  were  building  a  corn  crib  and  were  at 
work  making  hand  spikes  with  which  to  carry  some 
heavy  timbers  that  were  to  be  used  in  the  crib. 
It  happened  that  Lincoln  appeared  at  that  moment. 
He  asked  what  the  hand  spikes  were  to  be  used  for 
and  when  informed  said  he  could  shoulder  and  carry 
the  timbers  himself.  It  was  no  sooner  said  than 
done.  In  telling  of  this  feat,  Richardson  said  that 
it  would  have  taken  three  or  four  men  to  put  the 
timbers  in  place.  Richardson  tells  of  another  feat 
of  strength  performed  by  Lincoln.  Preparations 
were  being  made  to  move  a  chicken  house  when 

146 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      147 

Lincoln  picked  up  the  building  and  carried  it.  Mr. 
Richardson  said  the  house  would  weigh  "at  least  six 
hundred  pounds."1 

But  there  were  many  strong  men  in  Southern 
Indiana.  The  conquest  of  nature;  subduing  the 
wilderness  with  the  ax  and  the  maul  gave  excellent 
physical  training.  Many  of  Lincoln's  companions 
could  leap  an  eight  rail  fence  and  jump  a  bar  held 
level  with  the  tops  of  their  heads.  It  was  not  un- 
common for  the  young  men  in  a  deer  hunt  to  tramp 
thirty  miles  a  day  through  deep  snow. 

Speaking  of  Abe's  power  and  strength  Dennis 
Hanks  said :  "My,  how  he  could  chop !  His  ax  would 
flash  and  bite  into  a  sugar  tree  or  sycamore  and 
down  it  would  come.  If  you  heard  him  fellin'  trees 
in  a  clearin'  you  would  say  there  was  three  men  at 
work,  the  way  the  trees  fell."2 

The  true  story  of  the  life  of  Lincoln  the  youth 
must  include  the  work  done  by  him.  In  later  years, 
writing  of  his  father's  removal  from  Kentucky  to 
Indiana,  Lincoln  says:  "He  settled  in  an  unbroken 
forest,  and  the  clearing  away  of  surplus  wood  was 
the  great  task  ahead.  Abraham,  though  very  young, 
was  large  for  his  age,  and  had  an  ax  put  into  his 
hands  at  once ;  and  from  that  till  within  his  twenty- 
third  year  he  was  almost  constantly  handling  that 
most  useful  instrument — less,  of  course,  in  plowing 
and  harvesting  season."3 

As  a  boy  and  as  a  young  man  Lincoln  did  many 
different  kinds  of  work  for  his  parents.  He  helped 
to  clear  the  ground  of  trees  and  underbrush  and 
maul  rails.  He  drove  the  team,  plowed  the  ground, 
planted,  cultivated,  and  harvested  it.  He  helped  to 
cut  the  grain  with  the  sickle,  thresh  it  with  the  flail, 


148 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


and  clean  it  by  fanning  it  with  a  sheet.  He  fed  the 
stock  and  ran  errands.  He  was  especially  fond  of 
going  to  mill  to  have  the  corn  ground  into  grist.  He 
was  a  handy  boy  about  the  house,  always  seeing 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

Gentryville,   Indiana,  the  neighborhood  in  which 
young  Lincoln  did  many  kinds  of  work 

things  to  be  done  and  doing  them  without  being 
told.  His  father  taught  him  carpentry  and  cabinet- 
making.  We  have  seen  elsewhere  that  he  helped  his 
father  build  the  Little  Pigeon  Creek  Baptist  Church. 
Tradition  has  it  that  there  are  still  in  the  Gentry- 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      149 

ville  neighborhood  houses  which  young  Lincoln 
helped  to  build — those  of  the  Lamar,  Jones,  Gentry, 
Crawford,  Richardson,  and  Turnham  families.4  But 
recent  research  shows  that  most  of  the  buildings 
constructed  in  the  days  of  the  youth  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  are  no  longer  standing. 

We  have  evidence  that  young  Lincoln  not  only 
worked  at  the  trade  of  carpentry  but  also  at  that  of 
cabinet  making.  A  cupboard,  made  by  Thomas  Lin- 
coln and  his  son,  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Spencer 
County,  Indiana,  Courthouse.  On  the  cupboard  the 
following  note  is  pasted :  "This  cupboard  was  made 
for  Elizabeth  Crawford  by  Thomas  Lincoln  and  his 
son,  Abraham,  while  they  lived  near  Lincoln  City, 
Spencer  County,  Indiana." 

During  the  year  1826,  when  Lincoln  was  seven- 
teen years  old,  he  spent  several  months  as  a  ferry- 
man, working  for  James  Taylor,  at  six  dollars  per 
month.  It  is  very  likely  that  while  working  on  the 
Ohio  young  Lincoln  had  heard  of  General  La  Fay- 
ette whose  boat  had  been  wrecked  in  the  river  at 
Rock  Island,  a  few  miles  above  Troy,  in  1825.  On 
the  Ohio  Lincoln  came  into  contact  with  the  inces- 
sant traffic  up  and  down  the  river.  All  that  traffic 
was  of  the  leisure  kind  where  nobody  was  in  a 
hurry.  The  boats  tied  up  and  the  men  offered  their 
wares  for  sale.  The  steamboats  stopped  to  take  on 
and  let  off  passengers.  They  brought  the  news  from 
"up  river"  or  "down  river"  as  the  case  may  be  and 
we  are  not  to  be  surprised  that  Lincoln  urged  them 
to  tell  that  news  should  they  show  any  hesitancy  to 
do  so.  Today  when  our  railroads  are  our  chief  ar- 
teries of  commerce  and  trade,  we  can  scarcely  re- 
alize how  teeming  in  life  was  a  river  town  in  the 


150  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

time  of  Lincoln — a  constant  stream  of  people  and 
boats  kept  coming  and  going;  here  were  travelers 
seeking  new  homes  or  returning  to  their  old  ones; 
here,  too,  were  boats  laden  with  produce  to  be  sold 
down  river ;  here,  too,  sad  to  relate,  was  a  boat  filled 
with  human  freight  for  the  slave  market  of  New 
Orleans. 

It  was  while  working  as  ferryman  on  the  Ohio 
that  Lincoln  made  his  first  dollar.  He  afterwards 
told  of  the  incident  to  members  of  his  Cabinet:  "I 
was  standing  at  the  steamboat  landing  contemplat- 
ing my  new  boat,  and  wondering  how  I  might  im- 
prove it,  when  a  steamer  approached  coming  down 
the  river.  At  the  same  time  two  passengers  came 
to  the  river  bank  and  wished  to  be  taken  out  to  the 
packet  with  their  luggage.  They  looked  among  the 
boats,  singled  out  mine,  and  asked  me  to  scull  them 
to  the  boat.  Sometime  prior  to  this  I  had  con- 
structed a  small  boat  in  which  I  planned  to  carry 
some  produce  South  which  had  been  gathered  chiefly 
by  my  own  exertions.  We  were  poor  and  in  them 
days  people  down  South  who  did  not  own  slaves 
were  reckoned  as  scrubs.  When  I  was  requested  to 
scull  these  men  out  to  the  steamer,  I  gladly  did  so, 
and  after  seeing  them  and  their  trunks  on  board, 
and  the  steamer  making  ready  to  pass  on,  I  called 
out  to  the  men:  "You  have  forgotten  to  pay  me." 
They  at  once  each  threw  a  half  dollar  in  the  bottom 
of  the  boat  in  which  I  was  standing.  You  gentlemen 
may  think  it  was  a  very  small  matter,  and  in  the 
light  of  things  now  transpiring  it  was,  but  I  assure 
you  it  was  one  of  the  most  important  incidents  of 
my  life.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes.  It  was 
difficult  for  me  to  realize  that  I,  a  poor  boy,  had 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      151 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

Site  of  the  ferry  landing  at  Rockport,  Indiana,  where 

Lincoln  embarked  for  his  flat  boat  trip  to 

New  Orleans 

earned  a  dollar  in  less  than  a  day.  The  world 
seemed  wider  and  fairer  before  me.  I  was  a  more 
hopeful  and  confident  being  from  that  time." 

Lincoln's  river  experience  gained  as  ferryman 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  take  a  trip  down  river 
to  New  Orleans.  Writing  of  this  flatboat  trip  Lin- 
coln, in  later  years,  says:  "When  he  was  nineteen, 
still  residing  in  Indiana,  he  made  his  first  trip  upon 


152  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

a  flatboat  to  New  Orleans.  He  was  a  hired  hand 
merely,  and  he  and  a  son  of  the  owner,  without  other 
assistance,  made  the  trip.  The  nature  of  part  of 
the  "cargo  load/'  as  it  was  called,  made  it  necessary 
for  them  to  linger  and  trade  along  the  sugarcoast, 
and  one  night  they  were  attacked  by  seven  negroes 
with  intent  to  kill  and  rob  them.  They  were  hurt 
some  in  the  melee  but  succeeded  in  driving  the  ne- 
groes from  the  boat  and  then  'cut  cable/  'weighed 
anchor/  and  left."5  For  this  trip,  Mr.  Gentry,  the 
owner  of  the  cargo,  paid  Lincoln  the  sum  of  eight 
dollars  a  month  and  his  passage  home  on  a  steam- 
boat. 

Lincoln  was  not  only  ferryman  for  Mr.  Taylor 
across  the  Ohio  and  at  Anderson  creek  but  he  also 
helped  the  Taylor  family  with  various  tasks.  He 
did  the  farm  work,  ground  the  corn  with  the  hand- 
mill,  helped  with  the  house  work,  and  built  the  fires 
of  mornings.  Lincoln  was  a  much  sought  after 
"hand"  at  butchering  time.  He  butchered  for  the 
Taylor,  Wood,  Duthan,  and  McDaniels  families,  re- 
ceiving for  his  hard  work  the  magnificent  sum  of 
thirty-one  cents  a  day — six  cents  more  than  the  cus- 
tomary price  for  ordinary  work.  He  worked  for 
Josiah  Crawford  on  the  farm;  helped  to  build  the 
first  Crawford  cabin,  dug  and  walled  a  well,  split 
rails,  and  thrashed  for  him,  receiving  pay  at  the 
rate  of  twenty-five  cents  a  day.6 

In  1827,  when  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  in 
company  with  his  stepbrother,  John  D.  Johnston, 
Lincoln  went  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  where  they 
worked  for  a  short  time  on  the  Portland  Canal, 
which  was  then  being  built  around  the  falls  of  the 
Ohio  River.    Lincoln  was  paid  for  his  work  in  silver 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      153 


dollars  and  he  managed  to  save  most  of  them  and 
proudly  displayed  them  to  his  friends  in  Spencer 
County.7 

At  odd  times  Lincoln  worked  at  Jones's  store  in 
Gentryville.  He  drove  a  team  for  Jones,  unpacked 
the  boxes  of  merchandise,  butchered  the  hogs,  and 
salted  the  meat  for  which  he  received  the  sum  of 
thirty  cents  a  day. 


Pen   drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

The  site  of  Jones's  store  near  Gentryville,  Indiana 

The  women  in  the  homes  where  young  Lincoln 
worked  as  a  "hired  man"  in  Indiana  always  liked 
to  have  him  around  because  he  was  so  thoughtful  in 
doing  the  little  things  about  the  house — bringing  in 
wood,  filling  up  the  water  bucket,  sweeping  the  floor, 
etc. — things  that  he  did  willingly  and  cheerfully  for 
his  mother  and  stepmother.  Nor  did  Lincoln  forget 
this  kind  of  work  in  his  own  home  in  Illinois.  He 
always  helped  with  the  house  work;  cut  the  wood 


154  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

and  kindling,  built  the  fires  and  kept  them  going, 
brought  in  the  water,  swept  the  floors,  cleaned  the 
walks,  and  ran  the  errands.  His  early  training  and 
practice  in  Indiana  never  left  him  during  his  en- 
tire life. 

In  order  to  have  meal  for  their  bread  and  cakes, 
it  was  necessary  for  the  pioneers  to  go  ever  so  often 
to  the  mill  to  have  their  corn  ground.  We  have 
stated  elsewhere  that  it  is  probable  that  young  Lin- 
coln came  in  contact  at  the  Negley  mill  with  the 
people  of  the  British  settlement.  We  know  that  Lin- 
coln often  went  to  Gordon's  mill  and  to  Hoffman's 
mill.  He  was  always  pleased  to  take  these  trips  for 
it  gave  him  a  chance  to  come  into  contact  with  men 
of  whom  he  could  inquire  the  news.  It  was  at  Gor- 
don's mill  one  day  that  Lincoln  suffered  a  serious 
accident.  When  his  "turn"  came,  late  in  the  after- 
noon, he  hitched  his  mare  to  the  sweep  and  was 
urging  her  on  with  a  gad.  He  had  just  started  to 
apply  a  few  words — "get  up  here" — along  with  the 
application  of  the  switch,  when  the  mare  kicked  him 
in  the  face  and  he  did  not  finish  his  sentence.  He 
was  rendered  unconscious  and  his  father  called  and 
took  him  home.  Toward  morning  he  regained  con- 
sciousness and  upon  doing  so  at  once  said — "you 
old  hussy" — ,  finishing  the  sentence  that  he  had 
started  the  afternoon  before.  In  later  years  Lin- 
coln often  discussed  the  incident  and  reasoned  out 
just  why  upon  regaining  consciousness  he  had  ut- 
tered the  words  he  did.8 

Lincoln,  as  we  have  seen,  had  a  varied  experi- 
ence in  work  in  Indiana.  He  was  a  day  laborer,  a 
farm  hand,  a  grocery  clerk,  a  carpenter,  and  a  ferry- 
man.   He  saw  the  value  of  work  and  the  dignity  of 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      155 

labor.  This  attitude  toward  labor  he  held  through- 
out the  rest  of  his  life,  and  these  ideals — grubbed 
out  of  his  rough  work  in  the  hills  of  Southern  In- 
diana— stood  him  in  good  stead  in  his  famous  de- 
bates with  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  There  his  great 
heart  poured  out  the  perfect  tribute  to  labor  and  to 
the  men  who  work!  Again  Lincoln,  the  Hoosier, 
spoke  to  a  nation  and  the  nation  understood!  His 
position  in  the  Douglas  debates  was  intensified  in 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  in  which  Lincoln, 
the  Hoosier,  spoke  to  a  world  and  the  world  under- 
stood! And  the  roots  of  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation can  be  traced  to  the  teachings  young  Lincoln 
received  on  Hoosier  soil. 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  Lazy? 

As  a  boy  and  as  a  young  man  was  Abraham  Lin- 
coln lazy?  This  question  is  easy  to  ask  and  not 
hard  to  answer.  He  has  been  pictured  by  many 
writers  and  biographers  as  shiftless  and  lazy,  but 
so  has  his  father  been  so  pictured.  In  his  youth 
Lincoln  lived  in  a  frontier  neighborhood  where  hard 
work  was  found  for  everybody.  Under  these  condi- 
tions, a  young  man  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  eighteen, 
or  twenty-one,  stretched  out  in  the  shade  of  a  tree 
reading  a  book  might  well  be  called  lazy  by  some 
people.  For  him  to  prefer  to  read  and  study  or  to 
engage  in  conversation  with  a  man  like  Judge  Pit- 
cher instead  of  joining  the  crowd  in  rough  sport  or 
pastime  would  surely  give  occasion  for  some  one  to 
say  he  was  lazy.  For  him  to  frequent  Jones's  store 
or  Baldwin's  blacksmith  shop  to  read  the  Louisville 
Journal  or  hear  stories  told  and  yarns  spun  would 
surely  be  evidence  for  those  who  wished  to  say  that 


156  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

he  was  lazy.  But  strangely  enough  the  proof  is  all 
the  other  way.  Rev.  Murr  in  his  talks  and  conversa- 
tions with  the  men  and  women  who  knew  Lincoln 
best  as  a  youth  did  not  find  a  single  person  who 
would  say  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  lazy.  They 
stated  that  "he  was  ever  ready  to  turn  his  hand  at 
anything,  no  matter  much  what,  and  was  always  at 
work  if  there  was  any  work  to  be  had."9 

To  be  anxious  to  secure  an  education,  to  prepare 
himself  to  be  somebody  in  this  world  did  not  seem 
to  his  boyhood  friends  to  be  sufficient  evidence  for 
them  to  brand  Lincoln  as  being  lazy.  That  some  of 
his  biographers  have  done  so  is  evidence  that  in  this, 
as  in  other  matters,  they  made  no  serious  effort 
to  ascertain  facts.  As  a  youth  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  lazy  if  by  laziness  we  mean  reading,  studying, 
thinking,  pondering.  Yet  during  his  fourteen  years 
of  life  in  Indiana,  from  the  ages  of  seven  to 
twenty-one,  we  do  not  doubt  that  Lincoln  did  more 
physical  work  than  any  other  boy  of  his  neighbor- 
hood. Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  lazy ;  no  lazy  youth 
would  have  made  the  effort  or  paid  the  price  that  he 
did  to  put  himself  in  a  position  to  be  of  service  to 
humanity. 

Lincoln's  Sports  and  Recreation 

We  have  the  testimony  of  his  boyhood  friends 
that  "Lincoln  as  a  boy  was  jolly  and  lively,  enter- 
ing into  all  of  their  boyish  sports  heartily."  The 
youths  in  those  days  played  "town  ball,"  "stink 
base,"  "chicken,"  wrestling,  jumping  the  half  ham- 
mon,  the  broad  jump,  running  foot  races,  etc. 
Horseshoe  pitching  was  a  favorite  pastime.  Feats 
of  strength  were  often  held,  such  as  throwing  a 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      157 

heavy  maul,  and  lifting  a  dead  weight  as  a  log  or 
a  rock.  In  these  tests  Lincoln  was  always  first  as 
he  was  in  wrestling.  He  joined  the  other  men  and 
boys  of  the  neighborhood  in  coon  and  'possum  hunt- 
ing at  nights.  He  enjoyed  these  sports  somewhat, 
but  the  companionship  and  conversation  of  the  men 
more.  He  fished  some  but  he  was  not  fond  of  the 
sport  especially  when  he  could  not  talk  or  engage  in 
conversation.  Sitting  on  the  bank  of  a  stream  by 
himself  had  no  charms  for  young  Lincoln.  Oftimes 
the  different  settlements  of  Southern  Indiana 
bragged  of  the  "fastest  horse  in  the  country"  and 
the  argument  was  settled  by  a  race.  To  these  "brag 
races"  Lincoln  went,  for  there  were  to  be  found 
men  and  boys  and  in  them  he  was  interested. 

Lincoln  was  an  attendant  at  all  the  social  func- 
tions of  the  neighborhood—weddings,  infares,  char- 
ivaris, and  burials;  corn  huskings,  apple  parings, 
log  rollings,  and  barn  raisings;  debates  between  ri- 
val politicians  and  preachers,  the  literaries,  declama- 
tory contests,  and  spelling  matches.  And  he  was 
sure  to  be  on  hand  at  a  political  speaking,  "whoop- 
ing it  up"  for  the  Democrats  in  general  and  "Old 
Hickory"  in  particular.10 

On  one  occasion  when  Lincoln  was  working  as 
ferryman  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson  creek,  he  at- 
tended a  neighborhood  corn  husking.  The  men 
"chose  up  sides"  and  divided  the  pile  of  corn  equally 
between  them,  the  object  being  to  see  which  side 
would  finish  husking  its  pile  first  and  thus  win  the 
contest.  During  the  evening,  Lincoln  directed  a 
series  of  humorous  remarks  toward  one  of  the  con- 
testants on  the  opposing  side.  The  man  was  unable 
to  stand  this  fire,  and  giving  way  to  his   anger, 


158  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

threw  an  ear  of  corn  with  full  force  at  Lincoln.  The 
ear  hit  Lincoln  in  the  breast  and  made  a  scar  which 
he  carried  with  him  to  his  grave.  Ordinarily  this 
would  have  been  a  signal  for  a  fight  but  Lincoln 
controlled  himself  and  the  incident  passed  off. 

The  men  and  boys  of  Southern  Indiana  celebrated 
New  Year's  after  the  following  fashion :  At  midnight 
they  would  assemble  in  front  of  a  farmhouse  and 
choose  one  of  their  members  to  recite  the  "New 
Year's  Speech,"  a  bit  of  doggerel  wishing  the  reci- 
pient a  happy  and  prosperous  New  Year.  After  the 
speech,  the  crowd  would  be  invited  into  the  house 
where  they  made  merry  eating  and  drinking.  Then 
they  would  be  off  to  another  farmhouse,  repeat  the 
same  performance,  and  continue  it  all  night  long. 
In  the  New  Year  celebration,  Lincoln  was  in  his 
element,  seizing  the  opportunity  to  be  with  men  and 
boys  as  well  as  the  chance  to  deliver  a  "New  Year's 
Speech"  publicly. 

Dennis  Hanks  has  given  us  considerable  infor- 
mation about  Lincoln's  sports  and  recreation  while 
a  youth  in  Indiana.  Mr.  Herndon  interviewed 
Hanks  and  also  had  him  put  his  statements  in  writ- 
ing, numbering  his  questions  and  asking  Dennis  to 
number  his  answers.  Their  correspondence  is  now 
in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  of  Green- 
castle,  Indiana.  The  following  is  one  of  Dennis's 
letters  just  as  he  wrote  it: 

December  24,  1865. 

You  speak  of  my  letter  written  with  a  pencil, 
the  Reason  of  this  was  my  Ink  was  frose. 

part  first,  we  ust  to  play  4  Corner  Bull  pen 
and  what  we  cald  cat.     I  No  that  you  No  what  it 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      159 

is  and  throwing  a  mall  over  our  Sholders  Back- 
wards, hopping  the  half  hamen,  Restling  and  so  on. 
2nd  what  Religious  Songs.  The  only  Song  Book 
was  Dupees  old  Song  Book.  I  Recollect  Very  well 
2  Songs  that  we  ust  to  Sing,  that  was 

"Oh,  when  shall  I  see  jesus  and  Rain  with  him 
aBove."  the  next  was  "How  teageous  and  tasteless 
the  hour  when  jesus  No  Longer  I  see." 

I  have  tried  to  find  one  of  these  Books  But  cant 
find  it.  it  was  a  Book  used  by  the  old  predestina- 
rian  Baptists  in  1820.  this  is  my  Recollection  aBout 
it  at  this  time,  we  Never  had  any  other  the  Next 
was  in  the  fields  "Hail  Collumbia  Happy  Land  if 
you  aint  Broke  I  will  Be  Damned"  and  "the  turpen 
turk  that  Scorns  the  world  and  struts  aBout  with 
his  whiskers  Curld  for  No  other  man  But  himself 
to  See"  and  all  such  as  this.  Abe  youst  to  try  to 
Sing  pore  old  Ned  But  he  Never  could  Sing  Much."11 

Young  Lincoln  never  became  a  famous  hunter 
or  marksman.  For  proof  of  this  we  have  his  own 
words:  "A  few  days  before  the  completion  of  his 
eighth  year,  in  the  absence  of  his  father,  a  flock  of 
wild  turkeys  approached  the  new  log  cabin,  and 
Abraham,  with  a  rifle  gun,  standing  inside,  shot 
through  a  crack  and  killed  one  of  them.  He  has 
never  since  pulled  a  trigger  on  any  larger  game."12 

While  Lincoln  was  by  no  means  a  Nimrod  he 
did  enjoy  coon  hunting  and  we  are  indebted  to 
Herndon  for  the  following  coon  story:  "His  father 
had  at  home  a  little  yellow  house  dog,  which  invar- 
iably gave  the  alarm  if  the  boys  undertook  to  slip 
away  unobserved  after  night  had  set  in — as  they 
sometimes  did — to  go  coon  hunting.     One  evening 


160  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Abe  and  his  stepbrother,  John  Johnston,  with  the 
usual  complement  of  boys  required  in  a  successful 
coon  hunt,  took  the  insignificant  little  cur  with  them. 
They  located  the  coveted  coon,  killed  him,  and  then 
in  a  sportive  vein  sewed  the  hide  on  the  diminutive 
dog.  The  latter  struggled  vigorously  during  the 
operation  of  sewing  on,  and  being  released  from  the 
hands  of  his  captors  made  a  bee-line  for  home. 
Other  large  and  more  important  canines,  on  the 
way,  scenting  coon,  tracked  the  little  animal  home, 
and  possibly  mistaking  him  for  real  coon,  speedily 
demolished  him.  The  next  morning  .  .  .  Thomas 
Lincoln  discovered  lying  in  his  yard  the  lifeless  re- 
mains of  yellow  "Joe",  with  strong  proof  of  coon- 
skin  accompaniment." 

"Father  was  much  incensed  at  his  death,"  ob- 
served Mr.  Lincoln,  in  relating  the  story,  "but  as 
John  and  I,  scantily  protected  from  the  morning 
wind,  stood  shivering  in  the  doorway,  we  felt  as- 
sured little  yellow  Joe  would  never  be  able  again 
to  sound  the  call  for  another  coon  hunt."13 

Lincoln  as  a  Story  Teller 

Throughout  his  life  Lincoln  was  a  famous  story 
teller.  The  lawyers  of  the  Illinois  bar,  who  rode 
circuit  with  him,  have  testified  to  his  ability  as  a 
"spinner  of  yarns."  His  cabinet  members  and  rep- 
resenatives  of  foreign  countries  time  and  again 
broke  out  in  laughter  at  the  stories  told  by  this 
strange  and  unfathomed  man.  Where  did  he  get 
this  great  store  of  yarns  and  stories?  One  place  in 
general — Spencer  County,  Indiana ; — three  places  in 
particular — Baldwin's  blacksmith  shop,  Jones's  gro- 
cery store,  and  his  own  cabin  home,  for  be  it  re- 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      161 

membered  that  his  father,  Thomas  Lincoln,  was  no 
mean  story  teller,  nor  was  Dennis  Hanks  who  lived 
with  them,  nor  many  of  the  men  who  visited  at 
the  Lincoln's  and  spent  the  long  winter  evenings 
at  their  fireside. 

Lincoln  always  had  a  story  for  every  occasion. 
His  friends,  who  troubled  him  for  office  during  his 
Presidency,  were  sent  away  without  office  but  in 
a  good  humor  by  means  of  his  stories.  His  enemies, 
too,  were  often  conquered  in  the  same  way.  He 
was  a  master  in  stopping  a  conversation  that  he  did 
not  wish  to  continue,  and  he  could  have  some  one 
else  start  one,  that  he  did  not  wish  to  start,  by 
telling  a  story. 

History  tells  how  Lincoln,  during  his  cabinet 
meetings,  often  told  stories,  many  of  which  were 
considered  crude  by  some  of  his  cabinet  officers. 
Just  before  he  announced  his  intentions  of  publish- 
ing the  Emancipation  Proclamation  he  read  to  his 
cabinet  a  chapter  from  Artemus  Ward.  He  com- 
bined the  sublime  with  the  ridiculous;  the  comical 
with  the  serious.  He  had  always  done  this ;  we  have 
evidence  that  he  practiced  it  in  his  boyhood  days  in 
Indiana.  On  one  occasion  he  was  asked  by  "Granny 
Hanks"  to  read  to  her  from  the  Bible.  He  did  so 
but  he  mixed  in  with  the  Bible  story  some  of  the 
stories  from  Pilgrim's  Progress  and  other  books 
that  he  had  read.  "Granny"  grew  somewhat  suspi- 
cious and  after  a  while  she  stopped  Abe,  saying  to 
him:  "Abe,  I've  hearn  the  Bible  read  a  great  many 
times  in  my  life,  but  I  niver  yet  hearn  them  things 
in  it  afore."  Lincoln  was  caught  and  acknowledged 
it  to  the  great  merriment  of  the  young  folk  present. 
Then  he  read  the  Bible  right  to  "Granny."14 


162  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Dennis  Hanks  said:  "Abe  was  never  sassy  or 
quarrelome.  I've  seen  him  walk  into  a  crowd  of 
sawin'  rowdies  and  tell  some  droll  yarn  and  bust 
them  all  up.  It  was  the  same  after  he  got  to  be 
a  lawyer.  All  eyes  was  on  him  whenever  he  riz. 
There  was  sumthin'  peculiarsome  about  him."16 

Speaking  of  Lincoln  Judge  Gillespie  says:  "No 
one  would  ever  think  of  'putting  in'  when  he  was 
talking.  He  could  illustrate  any  subject,  it  seemed 
to  me,  with  an  appropriate  and  amusing  anecdote. 
He  did  not  tell  stories  merely  for  the  sake  of  telling 
them,  but  rather  by  way  of  illustration  of  some- 
thing that  had  happened  or  been  said.  There  seemed 
to  be  no  end  of  his  fund  of  stories."16 

Lincoln's  Boyhood  Fights 

On  the  frontier  there  were  many  rude  men  much 
given  to  quarreling  and  fighting.  Lincoln  was  often 
thrown  into  company  with  them  and  had  to  learn 
"to  do  in  Rome  as  the  Romans  do."  Here  the 
strength  and  prowess  of  his  great  and  towering 
body  stood  him  in  stead.  On  one  occasion  young 
Lincoln  was  being  tormented  by  an  older  boy  who 
was  backed  up  by  a  crowd  of  boys.  It  was  agreed 
that  they  were  to  make  a  charge  upon  him  expecting 
of  course  to  see  him  flee  but  they  had  reckoned  with- 
out their  host.  He  knocked  down  the  first,  second, 
and  third  assailant  in  rapid  succession  and  dared 
the  others  to  come  on.  When  they  decided  not  to, 
he  gave  them  a  dose  of  their  own  medicine  and  com- 
menced to  torment  them. 

On  another  occasion,  when  he  was  sixteen  years 
old,  he  had  a  fight  with  William  Grigsby.  The  fight 
arose  over  the  possession  of  a  pup  which  Lincoln 


Courtesy  Judge  Roscoe  Kiper,  Boonville,  Indiana. 

The  Old  Pigeon  Creek  Baptist  Church,  which  Thomas 

Lincoln  and  his  son  Abraham  assisted  in  building, 

Spencer  County,  Indiana 


Courtesy  Judge  Roscoe  Kiper,  Boonville,  Indiana. 

Monument  to  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln 


LINCOLN'S  VOCATIONS  AND  AVOCATIONS      163 

and  Grigsby  each  claimed  a  neighbor  had  promised 
him.  Grigsby  dared  Lincoln  to  fight.  Lincoln  knew 
he  could  whip  Grigsby  and  told  him  so,  but  offered 
to  put  up  John  Johnston,  his  stepbrother,  who  was 
nearer  Grigsby's  size,  and  let  them  fight  for  the  pup. 
It  was  agreed  and  the  fight  started.  Before  long 
it  appeared  that  Johnston  was  no  match  for  Grigsby 
and  Lincoln  stepping  in,  took  Grigsby  by  the  collar 
and  trousers  and  threw  him  far  over  the  heads  of 
the  crowd.  He  then  invited  the  entire  Grigsby 
crowd  to  come  on  and  fight  but  they  decided  not  to 
accept  the  invitation.  We  are  indebted  for  this 
story  to  Rev.  J.  Edward  Murr  who  received  it  from 
Wesley  Hall,  James  Gentry,  Redmond  Grigsby,  and 
Joseph  Gentry  who  were  eye-witnesses  to  the  fight. 
The  fight  took  place  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the 
depot  of  the  Southern  Railroad  at  Lincoln  City,  dis- 
tant some  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  west  of  the 
Lincoln  home.  In  fairness  to  young  Lincoln  let  it 
be  said  that  the  pup  did  belong  to  him,  that  Grigsby 
knew  that  it  did,  and  that  this  fact  explains  why 
Lincoln  interfered  in  the  fight  when  he  had  agreed 
to  let  Grigsby  and  Johnston  fight  it  out.17 

But  Lincoln  and  Grigsby  became  good  friends 
— a  friendship  that  lasted  throughout  life  as  is 
shown  by  the  following  incident:  During  the  Civil 
War  a  local  bully  of  Gentryville,  Indiana,  was  heap- 
ing abuse  upon  the  head  of  President  Lincoln  when 
William  Grigsby  made  him  swallow  his  words. 
Later  Grigsby  said:  "No  man  can  talk  about  Abe 
around  here  unless  he  expects  to  take  a  lickin\" 
And  old  Bill  Grigsby  said  what  he  meant  and  meant 
what  he  said. 

Young   Lincoln   had   several   fights   in    Spencer 


164  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

County.  He  did  not  particularly  like  to  fight;  he 
was  not  quarrelsome  in  the  least  and  was  never 
looking  for  trouble,  but  if  it  came  he  stood  his 
ground  and  was  able  to  "tote  his  own  skillet/'  as 
was  the  saying  of  the  day.  At  sixteen  or  seventeen 
Lincoln  was  nearly  six  feet  four  inches  tall  and  of 
great  strength.  His  prowess  was  known  all  over 
the  country  and  this,  perhaps,  kept  him  out  of  a 
great  number  of  fights  for  it  was  said  he  was  "too 
big  to  fight  a  boy  and  too  young  to  fight  a  man." 
Lincoln  was  capable  of  getting  "mighty  mad," 
but  then  he  was  just  as  capable  of  getting  over  his 
"mad  spell."  Every  fight  he  had  in  his  boyhood 
days  ended  with  the  closest  of  friendship  for  his 
opponents.  This  characteristic  he  carried  with  him 
to  his  grave.  In  his  second  inaugural  address  he 
said:  "With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see 
the  right,  let  us  strive  on  in  the  work  we  are  in, 
to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him 
who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow 
and  his  orphan;  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves 
and  with  all  nations."  At  a  cabinet  meeting,  a  few 
hours  before  his  assassination,  it  was  urged  that 
severe  measures  be  taken  against  the  leaders  of  the 
Confederacy.  Here  Lincoln  again  showed  that  he 
bore  malice  toward  none  when  he  refused  to  give 
his  consent  to  the  taking  of  more  lives.18 


CHAPTER  XIV 
LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS 

His  Personal  Appearance 

"Eyes  of  a  smouldering  fire,  heart  of  a  lion  at  bay, 
Patience  to  plan  for  tomorrow,  valor  to  serve  for  today, 
Mournful  and  mirthful  and  tender,  quick  as  a  flash  with  a 

jest, 
Hiding  with  gibe  and  great  laughter  the  ache 
That  was  dull  in  his  breast" 

— Margaret  Elizabeth  Sangster. 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  set  forth  the  character- 
istics acquired  by  the  youthful  Lincoln  in  Indiana 
and  show  how  these  remained  with  him  throughout 
his  life. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  dress  during  the  fourteen 
years  of  his  life  in  Indiana  was  like  that  of  his 
neighbors  about  him — no  better,  no  worse.  It  con- 
sisted of  buckskin  breeches,  sewed  with  whang 
strips  so  left  as  to  make  an  ornamental  fringe;  a 
blouse  that  fit  loosely ;  and  a  coonskin  cap  that  inevit- 
ably had  a  tail  dangling  down.  Young  Lincoln  grew 
so  rapidly — he  was  nearly  six  feet  four  at  the  age 
of  seventeen — that  his  clothes  never  fitted  him  and 
he  always  appeared  to  be  crammed  into  them.  His 
blouse  sleeves  came  about  half  way  between  his  el- 
bows and  his  wrists  and  his  breeches  about  half  way 
between  his  knees  and  his  ankles.  Many  years  af- 
terwards, speaking  of  his  short  breeches,  Lincoln 
said  that  his  ankles  had  been  exposed  to  the  weather 
so  long  "that  his  shin  bone  was  permanently  blue." 

In  August,  1826,  Abe,  then  seventeen  years  of 

165 


166  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

age,  in  company  with  Dennis  Hanks  and  Squire  Hall, 
who  had  married  the  daughters  of  Abe's  stepmother, 
went  to  Posey's  Landing  on  the  Ohio  River,  about 
twelve  miles  distant  from  their  home,  to  cut  wood 
for  fuel  for  the  boats  plying  the  river.  They  cut 
nine  cords  of  wood,  and  as  money  was  very  scarce 
were  paid  nine  yards  of  white  domestic  valued  at 
twenty-five  cents  per  yard.  Dennis  Hanks  is  our 
authority  for  saying  that  "out  of  this,  Abe  had  a 
shirt  made,  and  it  was  positively  the  first  white 
shirt  which,  up  to  that  time,  he  had  ever  owned 
or  worn."1 

At  the  age  of  seventeen,  Lincoln  weighed  about 
one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  was  of  wiry  frame, 
vigorous,  and  powerful.  He  had  very  large  hands 
and  feet  and  long  arms  and  legs,  so  much  in  con- 
trast to  his  slender  body  and  rather  small  head. 
Kate  Gentry,  one  of  his  schoolmates,  described  him 
as  having  a  skin  "shrivelled  and  yellow."2 

Lincoln  was  not  handsome ;  he  never  became  so. 
He  was  extremely  awkward  in  his  sports  which  pro- 
voked much  fun  and  merriment.  He  had  a  peculiar 
lumbering  gait  in  walking,  taking  exceptionally  long 
strides  with  his  exceptionally  long  legs.  He  was 
slightly  pigeon-toed.  Thomas  Lincoln  often  re- 
marked that  "Abe  looked  like  he  had  been  chopped 
out  with  an  ax  and  needed  the  jack  plane  to  smooth 
him  down."3 

Dennis  Hanks,  who  knew  the  youthful  Lincoln 
as  well  as  any  man,  describes  him  as  follows :  "When 
Abe  was  nineteen  he  was  as  tall  as  he  was  ever  goin' 
to  be,  I  reckon.  He  was  the  ganglin'est,  awkward- 
est  feller  that  ever  stepped  over  a  ten-rail,  snake- 
fence.     He  had  to  duck  to  git  through  a  door  an' 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  167 

'peared  to  be  all  j'ints.  .  .  .  Aunt  Sairy  often  told 
Abe  'at  his  feet  bein'  clean  didn't  matter  so  much, 
because  she  could  scour  the  floor,  but  he'd  better 
wash  his  head,  or  he'd  be  a  rubbin'  dirt  off  on  her 
nice  whitewashed  rafters. 

"That  put  an  idy  in  his  head,  I  reckon.  Several 
of  us  older  ones  was  married  then,  an'  thar  was 
always  a  passel  o'  youngsters  'round  the  place.  One 
day  Abe  put  'em  up  to  wadin'  in  the  mud-puddle  by 
the  hoss-trough.  Then  he  tuk  'em  one  by  one, 
turned  'em  upside  down  an'  walked  'em  acrost  the 
ceilin',  them  ascreamin'  fit  to  kill. 

"Aunt  Sairy  come  in,  an'  it  was  so  blamed 
funny  she  set  down  an'  laughed,  though  she  said 
Abe'd  oughter  to  be  spanked.  I  don't  know  how 
far  he  had  to  go  fur  more  lime,  but  he  whitewashed 
the  ceilin'  all  over  again.  Aunt  Sairy  said  many  a 
time  'at  Abe'd  never  made  her  a  mite  o'  trouble,  'r 
spoke  a  cross  word  to  'er  sence  she  come  into  the 
house.    He  was  the  best  boy  she  ever  seen."4 

David  Turnham,  speaking  of  Lincoln,  says  in  a 
letter  to  Herndon:  "As  he  shot  up,  he  seemed  to 
change  in  appearance  and  action.  Although  quick- 
witted and  ready  with  an  answer,  he  began  to  ex- 
hibit deep  thoughtfulness,  and  was  so  often  lost  in 
studied  reflection  we  could  not  help  noticing  the 
strange  turn  in  his  actions.  He  disclosed  rare  timid- 
ity and  sensitiveness,  especially  in  the  presence  of 
men  and  women,  and  although  cheerful  enough  in 
the  presence  of  the  boys,  he  did  not  appear  to  seek 
our  company  as  earnestly  as  before."5 

"What  do  we  know  about  the  Abraham  Lincoln 
who  in  1830  took  simultaneous  leave  of  Indiana  and 
his  boyhood.  .  .  .?     He  was  a  tall,  awkward,  un- 


168  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

couth  backwoodsman,  strong  of  muscle,  temperate 
and  morally  clean.  He  had  physical  strength  and 
was  not  a  bully;  was  fond  of  a  fight  but  fought 
fairly  and  as  a  rule  on  the  side  of  weakness  and  of 
right.  He  was  free  from  bad  habits  of  all  kinds, 
was  generous,  sympathetic,  and  kind  of  heart.  He 
was  as  yet  uninfluenced  by  any  woman  except  his 
own  dead  mother  and  his  stepmother.  He  .  .  .  had 
sufficient  leadership  to  proclaim  himself  "the  big 
buck  of  the  lick"  and  to  have  that  declaration  pass 
unchallenged.  He  was  a  great  hulking  backwoods- 
man, with  vague  and  haunting  aspirations  after 
something  better  and  larger  than  he  had  known  or 
seemed  likely  to  achieve."6 

Lincoln's  Kindness 

Kindness  for  everything  and  everybody;  sym- 
pathy for  the  down-trodden,  the  oppressed,  and  the 
helpless  were  marked  traits  in  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  boy.  These  traits  of  character  are  shown  by 
the  following  incidents  which  the  writer  has  selected 
from  a  long  list  of  similar  ones : 

We  are  indebted  to  Mrs.  Polly  Agnew,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Richardson,  for  a  story  about 
Abraham  Lincoln  that  shows  the  true  metal  in  the 
young  man.  The  story  is  in  substance  as  follows: 
The  Richardsons  moved  into  Spencer  County  some 
time  after  the  Lincolns.  They  floated  down  the 
Ohio  River  and  landed  at  the  site  of  the  present 
town  of  Grand  View.  They  at  once  set  out  to  seek 
their  new  home  site  in  the  wilderness  and  about 
noon-day  decided  upon  the  choice  of  their  farm. 
The  men  folk — father  and  son — soon  built  a  brush 
home  in  the  woods,  and  leaving  the  mother  and 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  169 

daughter  there,  returned  with  their  wagon  to  the 
boat  to  bring  another  load  of  their  goods.  After 
their  departure  a  storm  came  up.  Night  was  ap- 
proaching, yet  the  men  had  not  returned.  Suddenly 
a  tall  figure  appeared  out  of  the  woods,  wearing 
buckskin  breeches,  a  hunting  shirt,  a  coon-skin  cap, 
and  carrying  a  gun.  He  approached  the  ladies  in  a 
pleasant  manner  saying  that  he  lived  north  of  them 
a  short  distance,  and  learning  that  strangers  were 
moving  into  the  settlement,  thought  he  would  come 
down  and  see  them  and  offer  his  services.  Upon 
being  told  by  the  women  that  the  men  folk  had  re- 
turned to  the  river  for  another  load  of  their  goods, 
the  stranger  replied  to  them  that  he  felt  sure  they 
would  be  unable  to  get  back  that  night  as  the  rain 
would  prevent  them.  He  then  informed  the  ladies 
that  he  would  stay  and  protect  them  during  the 
night.  Mrs.  Richardson  and  daughter  were  at  a  loss 
to  know  what  to  do  for  they  thought  the  man  might 
be  up  to  no  good.  The  stranger  began  to  gather 
brush  and  when  asked  what  he  meant  by  doing  so, 
replied  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  a  bon- 
fire to  frighten  away  the  wolves  and  bears.  Shortly 
after  nightfall  the  howling  of  the  wolves  could  be 
heard  in  the  distance  and  in  a  short  time  they  ven- 
tured near.  The  stranger  invited  the  women  to 
come  out  and  see  their  green  eyes.  They  did  so,  and 
were  much  frightened,  not  now  at  the  presence  of  the 
stranger  but  at  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest.  The 
young  protector  urged  the  women  to  go  into  the 
house  and  go  to  sleep  saying  that  he  would  stand 
guard  over  them.  They  did  as  he  suggested  and 
in  the  morning  the  young  man  announced  to  them 
that  in  case  the  men  did  not  get  back  that  day  he 


170  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

would  return  in  the  evening  and  again  stay  on 
guard.     Such  was  the  youthful  Lincoln!7 

One  day  Abe  was  delivering  one  of  his  "ser- 
mons" to  the  members  of  the  household  in  the  grove 
near  their  home  when  his  stepbrother,  John  John- 
ston, in  company  with  some  other  men  and  boys, 
came  up.  They  had  picked  up  a  land  terrapin  in 
their  rambles  over  the  fields  and,  desiring  to  see  it 
walk,  placed  some  live  coals  upon  its  back.  Abe 
quickly  left  his  sermon  and  remonstrated  against 
the  cruel  treatment  afforded  the  helpless  turtle.  In 
the  midst  of  the  fun  Johnston  picked  the  turtle  up 
and  threw  it  against  a  tree,  breaking  its  shell.  As 
the  poor  turtle  lay  dying,  Lincln  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  deliver  an  exhortation  on  "Cruelty  to  Ani- 
mals" in  which  he  pointed  out  that  "an  ant's  life  is 
just  as  sweet  to  it  as  our  lives  are  to  us." 

Young  Lincoln's  whole  soul  was  so  imbued  with 
the  words  of  the  Prophet  Micah  that  his  mercy  was 
extended  not  only  to  mankind  but  to  the  animals 
as  well.  When  the  Lincolns  moved  from  Indiana  to 
Illinois  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  ford  the 
streams.  After  thus  crossing  one  of  the  streams  it 
was  noticed  that  the  dog  had  failed  to  follow  and 
was  whining  on  the  opposite  shore.  It  was  sug- 
gested to  go  on  and  leave  him  but  Abe  pulled  off  his 
shoes  and  waded  back  through  the  icy  waters  say- 
ing that  he  could  not  think  "of  abandoning  even  a 
dog."  Lincoln  said  he  was  amply  repaid  for  his 
kindness  by  the  gratitude  shown  by  the  little  crea- 
ture8 

One  night  Lincoln  saw  an  intoxicated  man  lying 
along  the  road  side.  He  picked  him  up  from  the 
frozen  ground  and  carried  him  on  his  back  a  long 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  171 

distance  to  shelter  and  worked  over  him  until  he 
revived.  The  man  later  was  always  fond  of  say- 
ing that  "it  was  mighty  clever  of  Abe  to  tote  me 
so  far  that  cold  night."9  Lincoln  loved  the  helpless 
man  he  aided;  but  he  despised  the  intoxicating  li- 
quors that  made  him  drunk.  Later  on  we  find  Lin- 
coln in  a  similar  position,  not  despising  the  slave 
owners  but  the  institution  of  slavery. 

A  story  is  told  and  a  true  one,  how  a  friend  one 
day  came  to  Lincoln  to  borrow  a  "biled"  shirt.  Lin- 
coln said  to  him:  "I  have  but  two,  the  one  I  have 
just  taken  off  and  the  one  I  have  on.  Which  will 
you  take?"10 

This  kindness,  mercy,  and  sympathy  so  peculiar 
to  Lincoln,  the  Hoosier  boy,  was  a  marked  charac- 
teristic of  Lincoln,  the  man.  History  is  full  of 
stories  how  as  President  his  great  heart  melted  time 
and  again  at  the  cruelty  of  war  and  how  he  could 
not  bear  to  order  the  execution  of  a  soldier  boy  for 
falling  asleep  on  picket  duty. 

Lincoln's  Honesty 

If  any  one  great  virtue  stands  out  in  Lincoln 
more  than  another  it  is  that  of  honesty.  By  his 
friends  in  Illinois  he  was  called  "Honest  Abe."  The 
stories  of  how  he  earned  this  name  have  been  told 
time  and  again — how  he  failed  to  give  eight  ounces 
of  tea  for  a  half  pound  and  upon  discovering  his 
mistake,  took  the  remainder  of  the  tea  to  the  pur- 
chaser; how  he  charged  too  much  for  a  purchase 
and  that  evening  walked  three  miles  to  return  the 
money ;  how  he  left  in  his  trunk  the  seventeen  dol- 
lars due  the  government  from  the  post-office  re- 
ceipts, awaiting  the  time  when  it  should  be  called 


172  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

for  and  how  he  went  to  his  old  trunk  and  produced 
the  money  when  the  official  came  to  collect  it;  how 
he  went  into  business  with  another  man  and  how 
the  business  failed  and  how  Lincoln  assumed  all 
the  debts  of  the  firm,  working  fifteen  years  to  pay 
them  off. 

But  this  great  sense  of  honesty  did  not  spring 
full  grown  in  the  man  Lincoln.  It  had  been  care- 
fully nurtured  in  the  boy  Lincoln  in  the  hills  of 
Southern  Indiana.  For  every  deed  of  honesty  regis- 
tered for  him  as  a  man  there  is  another  deed  of 
honesty  performed  by  him  as  a  boy.  Without  the 
latter  there  never  could  have  been  the  former,  for 
as  "the  twig  is  bent  so  the  tree  is  inclined. "  And 
to  show  that  the  twig  was  bent  in  the  right  way 
during  the  formative  years  of  his  life  we  not  only 
have  the  evidence  of  his  boyhood  associates,  who 
have  stated  that  Lincoln  was  an  honest  young  man, 
that  his  word  could  be  depended  upon,  and  that 
he  was  trusted  by  the  people  of  his  community, 
but  we  also  have  the  record  of  the  acts  of  honesty 
themselves. 

Here  is  the  story  of  an  act  of  honesty  and  truth- 
fulness that  can  match  the  Illinois  stories:  When 
Lincoln  was  fourteen  years  of  age  he  attended  the 
school  kept  by  a  Mr.  Crawford.  Over  the  door  of 
the  school  room  was  a  pair  of  antlers.  On  day  Abe 
swung  upon  one  of  the  prongs  of  the  antlers  and  it 
broke  with  him.  When  the  teacher  inquired  who 
did  it,  Lincoln  instantly  informed  him  that  he  was 
the  guilty  one,  saying:  "I  did,  sir.  I  did  not  mean 
to  do  it,  but  I  hung  on  it  and  it  broke.  I  wouldn't 
have  done  it  if  I'd  thought  it'd  a  broke."11 

Mr.  Silas  G.  Pratt  tells  the  following  incident 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  178 

showing  the  honesty  of  Lincoln:  "One  morning 
when  Lincoln,  with  his  ax  over  his  shoulder,  was 
going  to  work  in  the  clearing,  his  stepsister,  Matilda 
Johnston,  who  had  been  forbidden  by  her  mother 
to  follow  him,  slyly  and  unknown  to  her  mother 
crept  out  of  the  house  and  ran  after  him.  Lincoln 
was  already  a  long  distance  from  the  house  among 
the  trees,  following  a  deerpath  and  whistling  as  he 
walked  along.  He,  of  course,  did  not  know  that 
the  girl  was  coming  after  him,  and  Matilda  ran  so 
softly  that  she  made  no  noise  to  attract  his  atten- 
tion. When  she  came  up  behind,  she  made  a  quick 
spring  and  jumped  upon  his  shoulders,  holding  with 
both  hands  and  pushing  her  knees  into  his  back, 
thus  pulling  him  quickly  to  the  ground.  In  falling, 
the  sharp  ax  fell  and  cut  her  ankle  very  badly.  As 
the  blood  ran  out,  the  mischievous  Matilda  screamed 
with  pain.  Lincoln  at  once  tore  off  some  cloth  from 
the  lining  of  his  coat  to  stop  the  blood  from  flowing 
and  bound  up  the  wound  as  well  as  he  could.  Tak- 
ing a  long  breath  he  said:  Tilda,  I  am  astonished. 
How  could  you  disobey  your  mother  so?'  Tilda 
only  cried  in  reply,  and  Lincoln  continued:  'What 
are  you  going  to  tell  mother  about  getting  hurt?' 
Tell  her  I  did  it  with  the  ax/  she  sobbed.  That 
will  be  the  truth,  won't  it?'  To  which  Lincoln  re- 
plied manfully:  'Yes,  that's  the  truth;  but  not  all 
the  truth.  You  tell  the  whole  truth  Tilda,  and  trust 
your  good  mother  for  the  rest/  So  Tilda  went 
limping  home  and  told  her  mother  all  the  truth. 
The  good  woman  felt  so  sorry  for  her  that  she  did 
not  even  scold  her."12 

The  statements  of  Lincoln's  boyhood  associates 
bear  witness  to  his  honesty  and  truthfulness,  but 


174  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

some  writers  seem  to  think  there  is  one  story  that 
runs  counter.  The  story  goes  that  young  Lincoln 
wished  to  buy  a  pair  of  shoes  on  credit  from  Mr. 
Jones,  the  storekeeper  at  Gentryville.  The  Lincolns 
were  getting  ready  to  move  to  Illinois  and  Abe  was 
in  need  of  footwear.  When  he  stated  to  Mr.  Jones 
that  he  could  not  pay  for  the  shoes  until  a  certain 
date,  Jones  refused  him.  It  is  only  fair  to  Mr.  Jones 
to  state  that  he  denied  refusing  Lincoln  credit  for 
the  shoes  but  said  they  were  given  to  him  when 
he  asked  for  them.  Then  Lincoln's  record  is  one 
hundred  per  cent.13 

Speaking  of  Lincoln,  Samuel  C.  Parks,  one  of 
his  colleagues,  says:  "For  a  man  who  was  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  both  a  lawyer  and  a  politician, 
he  was  the  most  honest  man  I  ever  knew.  He  was 
not  only  morally  honest,  but  intellectually  so.  At 
the  bar  he  was  strong  if  convinced  that  he  was  in 
the  right,  but  if  he  suspected  that  he  might  be 
wrong  he  was  the  weakest  lawyer  I  ever  saw."14 
How  true  Lincoln  the  man  rang  to  Lincoln  the  boy ! 

Lincoln  Never  Drank  Liquors  or  Used  Tobacco 

We  have  the  statements  of  Lincoln's  boyhood 
associates  that  he  never  tasted  intoxicating  liquors 
of  any  sort  or  used  tobacco  in  any  form  or  made 
use  of  rude  and  immodest  language,  although  it  was 
the  general  custom  among  certain  men  and  boys  to 
do  so.  On  this  particular  point  Wesley  Hall  has 
given  us  direct  information.  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
his  father  worked  for  Wesley  Hall's  father  in  his 
tanyard  and  as  carpenters.  During  good  weather 
the  noon  meal  was  served  on  a  table  in  the  grove 
near  the  tanyard.    Abe  never  went  to  the  table  with 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  175 

the  men  but  retired  to  himself  and  read  while  the 
men  were  eating.  Mr.  Wesley  Hall  offers  the  fol- 
lowing explanation  of  Abe's  actions :  "Certainly  Abe 
et  dinner,  but  don't  you  know  he  never  drank,  and 
them  times  the  black  bottle  would  be  passed  around 
purty  often,  so  Abe  would  say  to  me,  'You  see,  Wes- 
ley, I  don't  drink  and  the  rest  of  the  men  do,  and 
if  I  was  to  eat  when  they  do  and  not  drink  with 
them,  they'd  think  maybe  I  was  smart,  and  so  I  jest 
hit  upon  this  plan  of  bringing  along  my  book  with 
me  and  reading  while  they  eat.  I  eat  after  they 
get  through — in  plenty  time  to  go  to  work  when 
they  do,  and  that  a  way  I  git  to  read  some  and  at 
the  same  time  I  don't  go  against  a  custom  that  they 
think  is  all  right  even  if  I  don't.'  "15 

We  have  Lincoln's  own  words  in  this  matter  for 
in  later  life  he  said  that  "he  had  no  desire  for  in- 
toxicating liquors  and  did  not  care  to  associate  with 
drinking  men."  When  the  committee  came  to 
Springfield,  Illinois,  to  notify  Lincoln  of  his  nomina- 
tion for  President  he  addressed  them  as  follows: 
"Gentlemen,  we  must  pledge  our  mutual  health  in 
the  most  healthful  beverage  God  has  given  to  man. 
It  is  the  only  beverage  I  have  ever  used  or  allowed 
in  my  family,  and  I  cannot  conscientiously  depart 
from  it  on  the  present  occasion.  It  is  pure  Adam's 
ale,  just  from  the  spring."16 

During  his  later  life,  Lincoln  took  a  firm  stand 
for  temperance.  Who  can  doubt  that  he  received 
most  valuable  lessons  from  the  lack  of  temperance 
among  some  of  his  acquaintances  in  Spencer  County, 
Indiana?  But  let  us  say  once  for  all  that  gambling, 
duelling,  drunkenness,  and  debauchery  were  under 
the  ban  by  the  best  class  of  people  in  Southern  In- 


176  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

diana  and  it  was  this  class  that  had  telling  influence 
upon  moulding  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

In  1842  Lincoln  delivered  a  temperance  address 
at  Springfield,  Illinois,  saying :  "Whether  or  not  the 
world  would  be  vastly  benefitted  by  a  total  and  final 
banishment  from  it  of  all  intoxicating  drinks  seems 
to  me  not  now  an  open  question.  Three-fourths  of 
mankind  confess  the  affirmative  with  their  tongues, 
and,  I  believe,  all  the  rest  acknowledge  it  in  their 
hearts  !17 

".  .  .  And  when  the  victory  shall  be  complete 
— when  there  shall  be  neither  a  slave  nor  a  drunk- 
ard on  the  earth — how  proud  the  title  of  that  land 
which  may  truly  claim  to  be  the  birthplace  and  the 
cradle  of  both  these  revolutions  that  shall  have 
ended  in  that  victory."18 

Some  of  Lincoln's  biographers,  especially  Lamon, 
have  been  fond  of  stating  that  Lincoln  drank.  La- 
mon tells  how  upon  his  defeat  of  William  Grigsby 
"Lincoln  drew  forth  a  whiskey  bottle  and  waved  it 
dramatically  above  his  head."  This  again  simply 
shows  that  Lincoln's  early  biographers  made  little 
or  no  serious  effort  to  get  the  facts  of  his  life  while 
he  lived  in  Indiana.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Abraham 
Lincoln  never  drank,  as  will  be  shown  by  the  follow- 
ing statements.  He  lived  a  clean,  moral  life  not 
only  in  his  boyhood  but  throughout  his  life ;  so  clean 
and  so  honorable  that  his  most  bitter  political  op- 
ponents, in  the  days  of  civil  strife  and  discord, 
could  not  find  one  moral  taint  against  him.  At  her 
bended  knee  Nancy  Lincoln  laid  for  him  a  deep 
Christian  foundation  upon  which  he  built. 

T.  G.  Onstott  was  the  son  of  Henry  Onstott,  who 
kept   the    tavern    in    New    Salem,    where    Lincoln 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  177 

boarded.  Speaking  of  Lincoln's  habits  Mr.  T.  G. 
Onstott  says:  "Lincoln  never  drank  liquor  of  any- 
kind  and  never  chewed  or  smoked.  We  never  heard 
him  swear,  though  Judge  Weldon  said  at  the  Salem 
Chautauqua  that  once  in  his  life  when  he  was  ex- 
cited he  said,  'By  Jing!'  "19 

Judge  Gillespie,  who  knew  Lincoln  well,  says: 
"As  a  boon  companion,  Lincoln,  although  he  never 
drank  liquor  or  used  tobacco  in  any  form,  was  with- 
out a  rival."20  Leonard  Sweet,  who  was  associated 
with  Lincoln  as  a  lawyer  in  Illinois  for  a  number 
of  years,  said:  "Lincoln  never  tasted  liquor,  never 
chewed  tobacco  or  smoked."21  This  same  statement, 
as  regards  the  use  of  tobacco,  was  made  by  Lin- 
coln's son,  Robert.22 

Mr.  G.  W.  Harris,  a  clerk  in  Lincoln's  law  office 
in  Springfield,  Illinois,  says  that  he  heard  Mr.  Lin- 
coln say  that  he  never  knew  the  taste  of  liquor.23 

In  1838  Abraham  Lincoln  for  a  third  time  was 
a  candidate  for  reelection  to  the  State  Legislature 
of  Illinois.  He  made  the  canvass  with  one  of  his 
colleagues,  Mr.  Wilson,  who  spoke  of  the  matter  as 
follows:  "Mr.  Lincoln  accompanied  me,  and  being 
personally  acquainted  with  everyone  we  called  at 
nearly  every  house.  At  that  time  it  was  the  univer- 
sal custom  to  keep  some  whiskey  in  the  house  for 
private  use  and  to  treat  friends.  The  subject  was 
always  mentioned  as  a  matter  of  politeness,  but 
with  the  usual  remark  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  'We  know  you 
never  drink  but  maybe  your  friend  would  like  to 
take  a  little.'  I  never  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  drink.  He 
often  told  me  he  never  drank;  had  no  desire  for 
drink,  nor  for  the  companionship  of  drinking 
men."84 


178  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  member  of  Con- 
gress from  Illinois,  he  was  urged  one  day  by  an 
associate  to  take  a  drink.  His  reply  was :  "I  prom- 
ised my  precious  mother  only  a  few  days  before 
she  died  that  I  would  never  use  anything  intoxicat- 
ing as  a  beverage,  and  I  consider  that  promise  as 
binding  today  as  it  was  on  the  day  I  made  it."25 

In  September,  1890,  Joseph  Gentry,  in  an  inter- 
view with  Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  said  that  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  did  not  drink  intoxicating  liquor.26 

Lincoln's  attitude  toward  temperance  is  well 
shown  in  an  affidavit  by  Major  James  B.  Merwin 
which  was  published  in  the  Christian  Advocate, 
February  6,  1919.  Major  Merwin  was  an  intimate 
associate  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  for  ten  years  prior  to  his 
assassination  and  was  holding  a  conversation  with 
him  just  a  few  hours  before  the  assassin's  bullet 
laid  him  low.  During  this  conversation  President 
Lincoln  said  to  Mr.  Merwin:  "Merwin,  we  have 
cleaned  up  a  colossal  job.  We  have  abolished  slav- 
ery. The  next  great  movement  will  be  the  over- 
throw of  the  legalized  liquor  traffic,  and  you  know 
my  heart  and  my  hand,  my  purse  and  my  life  will 
be  given  to  that  great  movement.  I  prophesied 
twenty-five  years  ago  that  the  day  would  come  when 
there  would  not  be  a  slave  or  drunkard  in  the  land. 
I  have  seen  the  first  part  come  true." 

Lincoln's  Wit  and  Humor 

Lincoln's  many  stories  were  full  of  wit  and  hu- 
mor and  sometimes  tinged  with  satire.  Should  any 
one  offend  him,  his  reply  was  a  good  lampooning  in 
private  or  public  or  the  rendition  of  a  bit  of  dog- 
gerel.   The  one  classic  of  the  latter  is  the  Chronicles 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  179 

of  Reuben,  spoken  of  elsewhere.  John  W.  Lamar 
tells  the  following  story  of  young  Lincoln's  dry  wit 
and  humor :  "The  first  time  I  ever  remember  of  see- 
ing Abe  Lincoln  was  when  I  was  a  small  boy  and 
had  gone  with  my  father  to  attend  some  kind  of 
an  election.  One  of  our  neighbors,  James  Larkins, 
was  there.  Larkins  was  a  great  hand  to  brag  on 
anything  he  owned.  This  time  it  was  his  horse. 
He  stepped  up  before  Abe,  who  was  in  the  crowd, 
and  commenced  talking  to  him  boasting  all  the  while 
of  his  animal. " 

"  'I  have  got  the  best  horse  in  the  country,'  " 
he  shouted  to  his  young  listener.  "  'I  ran  him 
three  miles  in  exactly  nine  minutes,  and  he  never 
fetched  a  long  breath/  "  "  'I  presume,'  said  Abe, 
rather  dryly,  'he  fetched  a  good  many  short  ones, 
though.'  "27 

As  a  man  Lincoln  retained  this  characteristic 
and  it  forced  him  to  accept  a  challenge  to  a  duel. 
In  1841  he  made  a  newspaper  attack  upon  the  Demo- 
crats of  Illinois  on  account  of  the  way  they  handled 
the  finances  of  the  state.  He  signed  his  communica- 
tion "Aunt  Rebecca,"  a  practice  very  common  in 
those  days.  The  article  was  resented  by  James 
Shields,  Auditor  of  the  State.  Miss  Todd,  a  very 
good  friend  of  Lincoln's,  and  some  of  her  friends 
thought  they  could  have  some  merriment  out  of 
Shields,  so  they  wrote  and  published  some  doggerel 
about  him,  signing  it  "Aunt  Rebecca."  Shields  be- 
came enraged  and  demanded  to  know  who  "Aunt 
Rebecca"  was.  The  editor  of  the  newspaper  asked 
Lincoln  what  he  should  do  about  it  and  Lincoln  told 
him  that  he  would  take  all  the  responsibility  in 
order  to  protect  the  ladies.    Shields  challenged  Lin- 


180  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

coin  to  a  duel.  Lincoln  did  not  approve  of  duelling 
and  tried  to  get  out  of  it  but  Shields  would  not  let 
him.  Lincoln  had  the  right  to  select  the  weapons 
so  he  chose  "cavalry  broadswords  of  the  largest 
size."  It  is  quite  evident  that  Shields  would  have 
stood  little  chance  with  a  giant  six  foot  four  using 
such  weapons.  Fortunately  the  duel  was  stopped 
by  the  intercession  of  friends,  arriving  on  the  scene 
just  in  time,  who  made  Shields  understand  that  Lin- 
coln did  not  write  the  verses  that  he  objected  to  so 
much.  But  Lincoln  did  write  the  attack  upon  the 
Democrats  that  angered  Shields,  which  in  turn  led 
to  Miss  Todd's  doggerel.28 

Lincoln's  Courtship  in  Indiana 

Elsewhere  we  have  recited  the  story  told  by  Mrs. 
Polly  Agnew  which  proves  that  Lincoln  was  the  gal- 
lant who  protected  her  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Wil- 
liam Richardson,  from  the  bears  and  wolves  in  the 
woods  the  first  night  of  their  stay  in  Indiana.  And 
we  now  have  another  story  to  record  from  this  same 
estimable  woman.    Let  her  tell  it  in  her  own  words : 

"Yes,  I  was  Abe's  first  sweetheart.  He'd  take 
me  to  spelling  bees  and  play-parties  and  to  meetin' 
and  the  like,  but  still  I  can't  say  that  I  wanted  him 
to  go  with  me  though.  Still  Abe  was  always  mighty 
good,  and  I  never  found  any  fault  with  him  excep- 
ting he  was  so  tall  and  awkward.  All  the  young 
girls  my  age  made  fun  of  Abe.  They'd  laugh  at 
him  right  before  his  face,  but  Abe  never  'peared  to 
care.  He  was  so  good  and  he'd  just  laugh  with 
them.  Abe  tried  to  go  with  some  of  them,  but  no 
sir-ee,  they'd  give  him  the  mitten  every  time,  just 
because  he  was  as  I  say  so  tall  and  gawky,  and  it 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  181 

was  mighty  awkward  I  can  tell  you  trying  to  keep 
company  with  a  fellow  as  tall  as  Abe  was.  But 
still  Abe  was  always  so  good  and  kind  I  never  sacked 
him,  but  bein's  I  didn't  have  no  other  company  them 
days  when  us  young  folks  would  all  start  to  meetin' 
or  somewhere  else  that  away,  I'd  let  Abe  take  me. 
I'd  sometimes  get  right  put  out  the  way  some  of 
the  girls  treated  him,  a  laughing  and  saying  things, 
and  so  when  we'd  get  off  to  ourselves,  Fd  give  them 
a  piece  of  my  mind  about  it.  And  then  they'd  all 
say  it  is  too  bad  the  way  we  do,  because  Abe's  so 
good,  but  they'd  appear  to  forget  all  about  it,  for 
the  very  next  time  they'd  do  the  same  way.  Abe 
wanted  me  to  marry  him,  but  I  refused.  I  suppose 
if  I  had  known  he  was  to  be  President  some  day, 
I'd  a  took  him."29 

Miss  Ida  D.  Armstrong  of  Rockport,  Indiana, 
tells  the  following  stories  about  Lincoln's  courtship 
and  vouches  for  their  truth:  "During  the  winter  of 
1887-8  my  sister,  Kate  Evelyn  Armstrong,  taught  in 
the  public  schools  at  Lincoln  City.  A  Mrs.  Oskins, 
who  enjoyed  smoking  a  cob  pipe,  frequently  came 
to  the  home  where  my  sister  boarded  and  often 
spoke  of  having  known  Abe  Lincoln.  On  one  occa- 
sion, Mrs.  Oskins  said,  'Well  Abe  used  to  go  with 
me  and  Lord  knows  I  never  would  'a'  sacked  him, 
if  I'd  knowed  he  was  goin'  to  be  President  some 
day.'  .  .  ." 

"During  the  same  winter,  when  my  sister  Kate 
was  visiting  in  the  home  of  Mrs.  Mat  Jones,  an  old 
lady  named  Lukins,  who  also  loved  a  cob  pipe,  was 
sitting  in  a  chair  tipped  against  the  wall,  talking  to 
my  sister  and  spoke  of  knowing  Abe  Lincoln.  Dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  conversation,  Mrs.  Lukins  re- 


182  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

moved  her  pipe  from  her  mouth  and  said,  'I  could 
a'  been  Abe  Lincoln's  wife,  if  I'd  wanted  to,  yes  sir- 
ree,  I  could  a'  ben  first  lady  of  the  land/  Mrs. 
Jones  said,  'Now,  Sarah,  what  are  you  talking  about, 
you  know  you  couldn't/  'I  could,  too,'  said  Mrs. 
Lukins.  On  being  pressed  further  she  said,  'Well 
Abe  took  me  home  from  church  oncet !'  "30 

When  the  author  was  Professor  of  History  in 
Evansville  College,  Evansville,  Indiana,  he  organ- 
ized seminar  classes  in  history  and  assigned  topics 
for  special  work  to  different  groups  of  students. 
During  the  years  1923-'24  and  1924-'25  the  history 
seminar  classes  worked  on  the  life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln in  Indiana.  To  one  group  of  students  during 
these  years  Lincoln's  courtship  in  Indiana  was  as- 
signed as  a  topic.  By  personal  visitation  and  by 
correspondence,  the  students  got  in  touch  with  the 
descendants  of  the  men  and  women  of  Southern  In- 
diana who  knew  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  net  results 
of  this  work  were  that  so  many  people  were  found 
who  had  relatives  with  whom  Lincoln  had  kept  com- 
pany and  to  whom  he  had  proposed  marriage  that 
it  was  decided  to  discontinue  that  feature  of  the  in- 
vestigation. No  evidence  could  be  produced,  no 
letters  shown;  it  was  all  hearsay  and  we  decided 
that  it  was  impossible  to  get  any  real  facts.  No 
doubt,  most  of  these  people,  would  in  the  final  analy- 
sis have  said :  "Well  Abe  took  me  home  from  church 
oncet"  or  "Well,  at  any  rate,  I  saw  Abe  at  a  party 
oncet." 

Lincoln  Had  No  Confidants 

As  a  youth  Lincoln  had  great  confidence  in  him- 
self and  believed  that  he  was  capable  of  becoming 
somebody.     From  his   fifteenth  year  on   he  often 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  183 

stated  that  "he  didn't  always  expect  to  grub,  dig 
and  maul"  and  when  asked  what  he  was  going  to 
make  of  himself,  replied :  "I'll  do  something  and  be 
somebody;  I'll  be  President  I  reckon."  He  did  do 
something;  he  was  somebody;  he  became  President 
but  we  have  his  own  words  for  it,  given  to  his  son 
Tad,  that  he  would  rather  go  back  to  his  Indiana 
farm  where  he  was  happier  digging  potatoes  for 
twenty-five  cents  a  day  than  he  was  in  the  Presi- 
dency.31 

Lincoln  associated  with  his  boyhood  friends;  he 
entered  into  their  sports;  he  was  one  of  them,  but 
he  never  confided  in  any  of  them.  He  never  took 
any  of  them  completely  into  his  confidence.  This 
trait  of  character  he  maintained  throughout  his  life. 
It  was  very  noticeable  among  the  lawyers  in  Illinois. 
He  was  not  prone  to  counsel  with  them  and  desired 
to  work  out  his  own  line  of  legal  action.82  And  in 
later  life  he  never  fully  confided  in  any  of  his 
friends.     He  had  learned  to  keep  his  own  counsel. 

Lincoln  Believed  in  Dreams  and  Tokens 

The  pioneers  of  Southern  Indiana  held  many  pe- 
culiar beliefs.  They  were  very  superstitious,  believ- 
ing in  dreams  and  tokens  and  in  signs,  lucky  and 
unlucky.  Bad  luck  was  sure  to  come  to  any  house- 
hold through  which  an  ax  or  hoe  was  carried.  The 
breaking  of  a  mirror  meant  death  in  the  family. 
No  new  work  should  be  started  on  Friday  unless  it 
could  be  finished  the  same  day,  for  it  was  certain 
to  end  disastrously.  A  bird  entering  a  house  was 
a  sign  of  sorrow.  The  farmers  must  plant  when 
the  moon  is  "right" — root  plants,  like  potatoes,  in 
the  dark  of  the  moon  and  those  that  were  to  make 


184  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

heads,  like  cabbage,  in  the  light  of  the  moon. 
Nearly  everyone  believed  in  witches  and  feared 
them. 

These  Hoosiers  were  quite  sure  that  they  could 
predict  changes  in  the  weather  by  the  way  their 
corns  hurt  them.  An  approaching  snow  storm  could 
always  be  foretold  by  the  way  the  backlog  in  the 
fireplace  crackled.  If  the  shucks  on  the  corn  were 
thick  or  if  the  squirrels  were  busy  in  the  early  fall, 
a  cold,  severe  winter  was  sure  to  follow.  They  car- 
ried buckeyes  in  their  pockets  to  keep  the  rheuma- 
tism away.  They  firmly  believed  that  a  child  born 
when  the  sign  was  in  the  stomach  would  be  strong 
and  hearty,  and  wise  if  the  sign  was  in  the  head. 
Everybody  believed  in  the  power  of  the  water 
wizard  to  locate  water  and  in  the  faith  doctor  and 
his  ability  to  cure. 

Lincoln,  like  his  neighbors,  believed  in  these 
things.  His  pensive  nature  was  affected  by  this  at- 
mosphere of  superstition,  which,  together  with  the 
fatalistic  type  of  religious  training  he  received  in 
his  youth,  remained  with  him  all  the  days  of  his 
life.  Especially  did  Lincoln  believe  in  dreams  and 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  his  cabinet  members  that 
he  did,  although  some  of  them  looked  upon  this  as 
a  bit  of  weakness.33  After  the  surrender  of  Lee, 
Grant  met  President  Lincoln  and  his  cabinet.  He 
showed  some  anxiety  about  General  Sherman  but 
was  answered  by  Lincoln  in  a  vein  of  mysticism 
that  Sherman  was  all  right  for  he  had  dreamed  last 
night  his  usual  dream  which  preceded  great  vic- 
tories, that  he  was  in  a  vessel  that  moved  rapidly 
toward  a  dark  shore.  He  had  dreamed  this  before 
the  battles  of  Antietam,  Murfreesboro,  Gettysburg, 


LINCOLN'S  CHARACTERISTICS  185 

and  Vicksburg.     And  Lincoln's  dream  again  came 
true;  Sherman  had  defeated  Johnston. 

Estimate  of  the  Character  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

As  a  youth  in  Indiana,  Lincoln's  voice  was  al- 
ways to  be  found  in  defence  of  law  and  order.  So 
it  was  when  he  became  a  man.  As  a  lawyer  in  Illi- 
nois, Lincoln  appeared  in  but  few  law  cases  in  be- 
half of  runaway  slaves  because  he  did  not  want  to 
violate  the  fugitive  slave  law.  He  did  not  like  the 
law  but  argued  that  it  should  not  be  violated  as  long 
as  it  was  law,  but  that  it  should  be  repealed  !34 

Young  Lincoln  had  a  judicial  mind:  he  was  a 
seeker  of  the  truth ;  he  wanted  both  sides  of  an  ar- 
gument presented ;  he  wanted  to  know  all  the  facts. 
On  account  of  this  turn  of  mind  he  was  chosen  to 
settle  all  the  quarrels  and  disputes  among  the  young 
men  of  his  neighborhood,  and  when  his  decision  was 
made  no  one  ever  doubted  its  fairness.  If  Lincoln 
found  himself  in  the  wrong,  he  was  ever  ready  to 
change  but  not  until  then.  He  would  have  been 
called  by  his  associates  an  obstinate  youth  only  for 
the  fact  of  his  readiness  to  change  whenever  evi- 
dence was  produced  showing  his  position  untenable. 

Nancy  Lincoln  saw  in  her  young  son  those  very 
characteristics  for  which  later  in  life  he  became  so 
noted,  and  she  nourished  them — sympathy  for  all 
that  suffer,  man  or  beast;  impatience  with  things 
that  are  wrong;  kindness  of  heart;  a  high  regard 
for  what  was  right.35 

Sally  Bush  Lincoln  said  of  her  stepson :  "Abe  was 
a  good  boy,  and  I  can  say  what  scarcely  one  woman 
— a  mother — can  say  in  a  thousand :  Abe  never  gave 
me  a  cross  word  or  look,  and  never  refused,  in  fact 


186  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

or  appearance,  to  do  anything  I  requested  him.  I 
never  gave  him  a  cross  word  in  all  my  life  .  .  .  His 
mind  and  mine  .  .  .  what  little  I  had — seemed  to 
run  together.  He  was  here  after  he  was  elected 
President.  He  was  a  dutiful  son  to  me  always.  I 
think  he  loved  me  truly.  I  had  a  son,  John,  who 
was  raised  with  Abe.  Both  were  good  boys;  but 
I  must  say,  both  now  being  dead,  that  Abe  was  the 
best  boy  I  ever  saw,  or  expect  to  see."30 

Perhaps  the  greatest  tribute  to  Lincoln  has  been 
paid  by  Dennis  Hanks  in  his  homely  way:  "Thar 
was  just  one  thing  Abe  Lincoln  didn't  know;  he 
didn't  know  how  to  be  mean,  to  do  a  mean  thing, 
or  think  a  mean  thought.  When  God  made  Old  Abe 
he  left  that  out  fur  other  men  to  divide  up  among 
'em."37 


CHAPTER  XV 
LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Effect  of  the  Indiana  Environment  on  Lincoln 

"Humor  quaint  with  pathos  blent 
To  his  speech  attraction  lent." 

— Hamilton  Schuyler. 

On  May  25,  1922,  Rev.  Dr.  William  E.  Barton 
of  Oak  Park,  Illinois,  a  great  student  of  Lincoln, 
wrote  to  Judge  John  E.  Iglehart  of  Evansville,  In- 
diana, another  great  Lincoln  student  and  founder  of 
the  "Lincoln  Inquiry" — the  purpose  of  which  is  to 
write  the  true  history  of  Abraham  Lincoln  from 
1814  to  1830  by  writing  the  true  history  of  Southern 
Indiana  for  that  period — the  following  question: 
"Would  it  have  been  as  well  for  Lincoln  if  he  had 
continued  to  live  in  Kentucky  and  gone  from  that 
state  in  1830  to  Illinois;  or  if  in  1816  he  had  gone 
direct  to  Illinois  from  Kentucky  ?"  In  reply  to  this 
inquiry,  Judge  Iglehart  writes  as  follows : 

"That  the  curse  of  the  slave  code  in  Kentucky 
affected  the  development  of  an  ambitious  and  cap- 
able youth  (cannot  be  doubted).  Under  that  code, 
manual  labor  such  as  Lincoln  was  destined  to  en- 
dure was  the  badge  of  servitude.  Social  surround- 
ings of  the  most  humble  character,  out  of  which 
Lincoln  arose  .  .  .  furnished  a  bar  to  that  patron- 
age in  public  opinion  and  of  leading  men  almost,  if 
not  entirely,  necessary  under  southern  ideals  to 
great  success  in  political  life.  Whether  Lincoln,  if 
reared  in  Kentucky  as  he  was  in  Indiana,  would 
have  studied  law  as  he  did  in  Indiana  or  Illinois 

187 


188  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

no  one  can  say,  but  I  seriously  doubt  it.  .  .  .  The 
right  and  opportunity  of  the  individual  to  rise  to 
the  full  measure  of  his  natural  and  acquired  powers 
under  conditions  of  social  mobility  did  not  exist  in 
Kentucky  in  Lincoln's  time,  before  the  Civil  War. 

"If  Lincoln  had  taken  the  pathway  of  the  legal 
profession  in  Kentucky  as  he  did  in  Illinois,  the 
wonderful  opportunity  and  progress  opened  to  him 
in  the  latter  state  were  impossible  to  him  in  Ken- 
tucky. No  person  familiar  with  Kentucky  and  Illi- 
nois history  during  that  period  can  doubt  it.  It 
was  the  aggressive  struggle  for  expansion  and  ex- 
istence of  the  slave  power,  intrenched  in  free  terri- 
tory, which  gave  the  one  great  opportunity  of  his 
life  to  Lincoln. 

"Free  speech  and  a  free  press  were  denied  under 
the  slave  code — a  curse  which  the  best  and  the 
greatest  representatives  of  the  South  in  its  liter- 
ature since  the  Civil  War  now  freely  concede, — 
make  a  southern  literature  impossible,  before  the 
Civil  War. 

"Had  Lincoln  chosen  the  legal  profession  in  Ken- 
tucky, he  would  in  my  judgment  have  been  merely 
a  vigorous,  able  lawyer,  and  a  dangerous  opponent 
in  a  jury  trial,  such  as  our  western  life  of  that 
period  (as  exists  today),  produced  in  nearly  every 
judicial  circuit;  the  representative  of  a  class  of  men 
who  when  they  are  right  and  properly  prepared  in 
advance,  cannot  be  overmatched  in  the  battle  for 
the  truth."1 

Speaking  in  this  same  vein  Rev.  Mr.  Murr  says : 
"What  period  in  the  life  of  any  man  is  of  as  much 
interest  or  ordinarily  calculated  to  influence  and 
shape  the  destiny  as  those  years  between  seven  and 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER  189 

twenty-one?  What  happened  during  those  forma- 
tive years  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  life?  Was  his  stay  in 
Indiana  a  mere  chance,  one  of  the  accidents  in  the 
fortune  of  a  roving  .  .  .  father,  or  is  there  rather 
discerned  a  leading  of  Providence? 

"It  may  not  be  inappropriate  here  to  raise  the 
question,  would  his  career  have  been  what  it  after- 
ward became,  had  he  spent  these  formative  years 
elsewhere,  even  in  the  State  of  Illinois?  Or,  revers- 
ing the  order  of  history,  had  he  been  born  in  In- 
diana, spending  the  first  seven  years  there,  remov- 
ing to  the  State  of  Kentucky,  remaining  there  until 
attaining  his  majority  and  then  going  to  Illinois 
as  he  did,  would  his  career  have  been  what  it  was? 
It  is  believed  that  certain  influences  would  have  pro- 
duced marked  changes  in  him,  and  so  much  so  as  to 
have  prevented  Lincoln  from  becoming  the  great 
anti-slavery  advocate  and  leader.  Moreover,  it  can- 
not be  doubted  that  had  he  spent  all  of  these  four- 
teen formative  years  in  Kentucky,  even  though  born 
in  Indiana,  his  greatness  would  have  almost  wholly 
been  attributed  to  a  residence  and  rearing  among 
Kentucky  pioneers,  and  the  accident  of  his  birth 
would  have  doubtless  received  somewhat  less  consid- 
eration than  it  has.  Unquestionably,  had  Mr.  Lin- 
coln been  reared  elsewhere  than  in  Indiana,  parti- 
cularly in  a  slave  state,  the  plans  and  purposes  of 
his  life  might  have  been  hindered  or  defeated  al- 
together. In  raising  such  questions  we  are  not 
wholly  in  a  field  purely  conjectural. "2 

Certain  it  is  that  Abraham  Lincoln  is  not  a  typi- 
cal Kentuckian  unless  we  are  willing  to  accept  the 
mountain  type  as  the  representative  of  the  people 
of  that  state.    Henry  Clay  may  be  taken  as  the  typi- 


190  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

cal  Kentuckian — suave,  graceful,  elegant — yet  these 
words  do  not  describe  Lincoln.  Born  in  Kentucky 
of  parents  without  social  standing,  Lincoln  was  not 
a  Kentuckian,  although  no  one  can  find  fault  with 
that  great  state  for  laying  claim  to  him.  The  men- 
tal traits  and  characteristics  found  in  Lincoln  the 
man  were  acquired  by  Lincoln  the  boy  in  Southern 
Indiana  where  he  lived  from  the  age  of  seven  to 
twenty-one,  exactly  one-fourth  of  his  life  —  and 
those  years  that  have  most  to  do  in  moulding  a 
character.  In  his  private  conversations,  Lincoln 
often  referred  to  his  life  in  Indiana.  His  best  stories 
— and  there  are  many  of  them — are  about  Indiana 
life  and  scenes.  The  Hoosier  dialect  remained  with 
him  throughout  life.  He  began  his  famous  Cooper 
Institute  address  by  saying  "Mr.  Cheerman" ;  he  al- 
ways said  "crick"  for  creek.  Rather  let  us  say  that 
Lincoln  was  a  typical  Hoosier,  reared  in  the  most 
characteristic  of  all  the  American  states  and  in  the 
section  of  the  state  that  was  inhabited  by  people  of 
the  best  blood  of  our  country — the  pioneer  blood 
that  came  into  it  from  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Tennessee,  through  Kentucky,  sprinkled  with  a  little 
blood  from  New  England,  and  in  Lincoln's  imme- 
diate neighborhood  with  considerable  blood  from 
Great  Britain. 

Lincoln's  Adolescent  Years 

"The  child,  born  a  savage,  becomes  a  creature  of 
civilization  by  gradual  process.  He  begins  to  gather 
impressions  in  his  earliest  infancy,  and  continues  to 
receive  them  throughout  his  life.  It  is  out  of  these 
impressions  that  his  nature  is  formed.  It  may  be 
that  he  inherited  some  mental  and  moral  tenden- 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER  191 

cies  from  his  ancestors,  but  these  at  most  are  mere 
tendencies ;  his  nature  is  built,  almost  entirely,  from 
that  which  he  derives  from  his  surroundings  and 
from  his  contact  with  those  about  him  as  he  grows 
up  and  matures.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  one  who 
seeks  to  ascertain  the  nature  and  character  of  a 
matured  man  and  the  processes  by  which  these  have 
been  developed,  must  necessarily  begin  his  inquiries 
at  the  beginning,  and  must  pursue  them  to  the  end. 
This  means  that  the  fourteen  years  of  the  boyhood 
and  adolescence  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  which  he  spent 
in  Southwestern  Indiana,  and  among  its  pioneer 
people,  cannot  be  neglected  by  any  one  who  seeks  to 
learn,  and  to  portray,  the  process  of  his  building. 
There  is  probably  no  period  of  his  eventful  life 
which  influenced  more  largely  his  nature  in  man- 
hood."3 

On  December  12,  1920,  Judge  Robert  W.  Mc- 
Bride,  who  served  in  his  youth  in  the  cavalry  body 
guard  of  Lincoln  when  President,  delivered  an  ad- 
dress before  the  conference  of  the  Historical  So- 
cieties of  Indiana,  setting  forth  the  influence  of  his 
Indiana  life  on  Lincoln.  He  said:  "I  realize  that 
the  recital  of  any  authentic  incident  connected  with 
the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  has  interest  but  there 
are  reasons  why  the  people  of  Indiana  should  feel 
especial  interest  in  anything  relating  to  him,  for  he 
was  essentially  an  Indiana  product.  When  he  was 
brought  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana,  he  was  seven 
years  of  age.  When  he  left  Indiana  for  Illinois  he 
was  twenty-one  years  old — a  man  in  years,  in  sta- 
ture, and  in  mentality.  The  fourteen  years  between 
seven  and  twenty-one  are  in  large  measure  the  for- 
mative years  in  a  man's  character.    In  those  years 


192  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

the  boy  Lincoln  had  become  the  man  Lincoln.  The 
foundation  for  the  future  lawyer,  statesman  and  hu- 
manitarian, had  been  laid,  direction  and  color  had 
been  given  to  the  trend  of  his  thoughts  and  inclina- 
tions, and  that  which  followed  was  only  develop- 
ment. It  was  the  flowering  and  fruiting  of  a  plant 
transplanted  from  Kentucky  but  grown  on  Indiana 
soil."4 

Many  of  Lincoln's  "outstanding  characteris- 
tics— his  uncommon  power  of  observation,  his  pene- 
trating mind,  .  .  .  his  appreciation  of  the  problems 
of  those  who  must  struggle  and  toil,  his  open  mind 
and  freedom  of  thought,  his  ruggedness  of  mind 
and  tenderness  of  soul — were  laid  deep  in  his  nature 
during  the  nascent  period  of  his  life  when  living  in 
Indiana."5  When  he  moved  from  Indiana  to  Illi- 
nois his  character  was  formed.  The  foundation  was 
laid.  The  superstructure  was  built  upon  a  Hoosier 
base.  That  base  was  broad,  ample,  solid.  It  was 
a  foundation  of  excellently  mixed  ingredients  — 
knoweldge,  honesty,  humor. 

We  have  a  volume  of  direct  evidence  from  Wil- 
liam H.  Herndon  that  the  years  Lincoln  spent  in 
Indiana  had  great  influence  upon  his  later  life. 
".  .  .  It  was  in  those  backwoods  of  Indiana  that 
the  ambition  of  Lincoln  was  awakened.  There  .  .  . 
the  sturdy  nature  of  the  child  was  woven,  and 
there  .  .  .  the  man  was  born,  sprung  from  the  very 
earth.  The  wild  forest  was  his  university,  and  it 
taught  him  more  than  many  boys  learn  in  academic 
groves,  for  it  taught  him  to  use  his  hand  as  well  as 
his  head,  and  to  think  and  act  for  himself.  His 
mental  growth  was  slow  and  did  not  cease  while 
he  lived ;  but  morally,  his  character  seemed  to  come 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER  193 

almost  to  its  full  stature  in  mere  boyhood."6  One 
day  Lincoln  remarked  to  Herndon  that  his  religious 
code  was  the  same  as  that  of  an  old  Hoosier  who 
said :  "When  I  do  good,  I  feel  good ;  when  I  do  bad 
I  feel  bad,  and  that's  my  religion."7 

In  after  years  Lincoln  never  looked  upon  his 
boyhood  life  as  mean  or  debased.  In  speaking  of 
Lincoln's  youth,  Leonard  Sweet  says:  "Mr.  Lincoln 
told  this  story  as  the  story  of  a  happy  childhood. 
There  was  nothing  sad  or  pinched,  and  nothing  of 
want,  and  no  allusion  to  want  in  any  part  of  it.  His 
own  description  of  his  youth  was  that  of  a  happy 
joyous  boyhood.  It  was  told  with  mirth  and  glee, 
and  illustrated  by  pointed  anecdotes,  often  inter- 
rupted by  his  jocund  laugh."8 

Lincoln  in  Illinois  is  Lincoln  the  Hoosier 

In  Illinois  Lincoln  went  into  business  with  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Berry.  The  business  did  not 
prosper  and  finally  failed.  Berry  left  the  country 
and  died  leaving  Lincoln  to  pay  the  debts  of  the 
partnership.  He  went  to  work  manfully  to  settle 
the  obligations,  his  "national  debt,"  as  he  called 
them,  a  task  that  took  him  fifteen  years  to  finish. 
But  he  paid  off  the  last  dollar  and  fairly  earned  the 
title  of  "Honest  Abe."  But  during  his  boyhood  and 
young  manhood  days  in  Indiana,  Lincoln  could  just 
as  well  have  been  called  "Honest  Abe"  for  we  have 
incident  upon  incident  to  prove  this. 

In  his  first  political  contest  in  Illinois,  Lincoln 
drew  heavily  upon  his  Indiana  experiences.  In  1832 
he  became  a  candidate  for  election  to  the  Illinois 
Assembly,  running  on  a  platform  that  favored  the 
improvement  of  navigation  of  the  Sangamon  River. 


194  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

His  plan  was  to  straighten  the  channel  of  the  river. 
His  experience  as  ferryman  on  the  Ohio  at  the 
mouth  of  Anderson  creek  and  his  trips  on  the  Ohio 
and  the  Mississippi  stood  him  in  good  stead. 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  sought  reelection  to  the 
State  Legislature  of  Illinois  he  came  out  on  a  plat- 
form in  favor  of  "admitting  all  whites  to  the  right 
of  suffrage,  who  pay  taxes  or  bear  arms,  by  no 
means  excluding  females. "  Admitting  women  to 
the  suffrage  was  an  advanced  thought  and  nowhere 
in  our  country  at  that  time  was  there  an  organized 
movement  in  favor  of  it.  But,  here,  again,  Lincoln 
was  ringing  true  to  his  boyhood  ideals  in  Indiana, 
where  he,  far  in  advance  of  his  time,  was,  perhaps, 
influenced  by  the  teachings  of  Robert  Owen  and 
the  writings  of  Fanny  Wright. 

One  thing  that  stood  out  prominently  in  Lincoln 
as  a  boy  in  Indiana  was  his  hatred  for  wrong  and 
his  desire  for  right.  This  characteristic  he  mani- 
fested in  no  uncertain  terms.  We  find  his  boyhood 
ideals  creeping  out  in  the  man  while  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Illinois  State  Legislature.  When  that 
body  denounced  by  joint  resolution  of  both  houses 
the  agitation  against  slavery,  the  ideals  of  Lincoln 
were  sorely  tested.  He  and  another  legislator,  Dan 
Stone  of  Sangamon  County,  went  on  record  as  say- 
ing "that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on 
both  injustice  and  bad  policy. "  The  test  had  come. 
He  did  not  flinch.  He  did  not  desert  his  boyhood 
teachings  and  his  fight  for  the  right.  Lincoln  the 
man  was  Lincoln  the  boy! 

In  his  campaign  for  election  to  the  Illinois  Legis- 
lature in  1834  Lincoln  fell  in  with  Major  John  T. 
Stuart  who  encouraged  him  to  study  law  and  lent 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER  195 

him  law  books.  Lincoln  had  to  travel  twenty  miles 
to  Springfield  to  get  the  books  but  what  of  that? 
Had  he  not  in  Indiana  traveled  many  miles  in  all 
directions  from  his  cabin  home  and  read  every  book 
he  came  across?  His  desire  to  read  and  study  and 
his  ability  and  willingness  to  travel  to  get  books 
had  been  well  formed  in  the  Hoosier  State.  A  trip 
of  twenty  miles  to  continue  the  reading  of  law  in 
the  study  of  which  he  had  been  encouraged  by  Judge 
Breckenridge  in  Boonville  and  Judge  Pitcher  in 
Rockport,  Indiana,  meant  nothing  to  Lincoln. 

In  1858  Lincoln  was  nominated  by  the  Repub- 
licans for  the  United  States  Senate  against  Stephen 
A.  Douglas.  In  accepting  the  nomination,  Lincoln 
delivered  a  famous  speceh — "The  House  Divided 
Against  Itself "  speech.  To  one  of  his  close  friends, 
Jesse  K.  Dubois,  Lincoln  said:  "I  refused  to  read 
the  passage  about  the  house  divided  against  itself  to 
you,  because  I  knew  you  would  ask  me  to  change 
or  modify  it,  and  that  I  was  determined  not  to  do. 
I  had  willed  it  so,  and  was  willing,  if  necessary,  to 
perish  with  it.  That  expression  is  a  truth  of  all 
human  experience:  a  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand.  I  want  to  use  some  universally  known 
figure  expressed  in  simple  language,  that  it  may 
strike  home  to  the  minds  of  men,  in  order  to  arouse 
them  to  the  peril  of  the  times.  I  would  rather  be 
defeated  with  this  expression  in  the  speech,  and  to 
uphold  and  discuss  it  before  the  people,  than  to  be 
victorious  without  it."9 

Here,  again,  Lincoln  displayed  that  belief  that 
he  was  right  and  that  his  friends  would  be  wrong — 
a  tendency  so  marked  in  him  as  a  boy  in  Indiana. 
And  again  in  these  statements  to  Dubois  is  seen  that 


196  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

desire  to  tell  the  whole  truth.  He  would  not  mince 
words,  for  he  well  knew  that  a  half  trtuh  is  no  truth 
at  all ;  in  fact  it  is  worse  than  a  lie  because  it  can- 
not be  run  to  earth.  By  mincing  and  twisting  words 
about  slavery,  Lincoln  felt  he  could  be  elected  to 
the  United  States  Senate  over  Douglas ;  but  that  if 
he  told  the  whole  truth  he  would  be  defeated.  He 
told  the  truth  and  lost  the  election  to  the  Senate  but 
won  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 

Lincoln  the  President  is  Lincoln  the  Hoosier 

As  a  boy  Lincoln  was  superstitious,  believing  in 
signs,  dreams,  and  omens  and  he  continued  to  be- 
lieve in  them  all  his  life.  In  the  year  1860,  one 
day  while  resting  upon  a  lounge,  Lincoln  saw  re- 
flected in  a  mirror  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  room 
two  images  of  himself,  one  somewhat  paler  than 
the  other.  It  alarmed  him  and  he  told  Mrs.  Lincoln 
about  it.  She,  too,  believed  in  dreams  and  thought 
it  was  "a  sign  that  Lincoln  was  to  be  elected  for  a 
second  term  and  that  the  paleness  of  one  of  the 
faces  indicated  that  he  would  not  see  life  through 
the  last  term.',1()  Shortly  before  his  assassination, 
Lincoln  dreamed  that  in  the  East  Room  of  the  White 
House  he  saw  a  catafalque  with  the  body  of  an 
assassinated  man  laying  upon  it.  He  inquired  who 
was  dead  and  was  told  that  the  President  had  been 
murdered. 

Elsewhere  we  have  quoted  Josiah  Crawford  and 
others  of  Lincoln's  boyhood  acquaintances  saying 
that  young  Lincoln  contended  that  he  would  some 
day  be  President.  Here  are  the  President's  own 
words  substantiating  these  statements :  On  an  occa- 
sion during  the  war,  when  Mr.  Lamon,  who  had 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER  197 

been  appointed  by  Lincoln  as  Marshal  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  went  into  the  President's  office, 
he  found  him  in  a  disturbed  state.  The  President 
was  lying  on  a  sofa  and  upon  Mr.  Lamon's  approach 
jumped  up  and  said  to  him:  "You  know  better  than 
any  man  living  that  from  my  boyhood  days  up  my 
ambition  was  to  be  President.  I  am  President  of 
one  part  of  this  divided  country  at  least;  but  look 
at  me !  I  wish  I  had  never  been  born."11  That  Lin- 
coln was  happier  as  a  boy  in  Indiana  than  as  Presi- 
dent in  Washington  we  may  infer  from  his  own 
words:  "I  tell  my  Tad  that  we  will  go  back  to  the 
farm  where  I  was  happier  as  a  boy  when  I  dug 
potatoes  at  twenty-five  cents  a  day  than  I  am  now." 

William  H.  Herndon  has  recorded  many  in- 
stances in  which  Lincoln  reverted  to  his  boyhood  in 
Indiana.  The  following  story  from  the  lips  of  Lin- 
coln himself  shows  that  he  had  not  forgotten  his 
boyhood  days  and  could  make  use  of  them  to  drive 
home  a  point.  During  his  Presidency  some  of  his 
friends  feared  that  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Chase, 
wanted  to  be  President  and  would  be  inclined  to  un- 
dermine Lincoln.  They  wanted  the  President  to 
keep  Chase  away  from  the  Republican  Convention 
in  Ohio.  Replying  to  his  friends,  Lincoln  said :  "Oh, 
don't  worry  about  Chase.  He  has  just  as  good  a 
right  to  want  to  be  President  as  any  man  in  Amer- 
ica, and  if  the  people  want  Chase  to  be  President, 
then  I  want  him  to  be  President.  When  I  was  a 
boy  I  worked  on  a  farm.  We  ploughed  corn,  and 
I  rode  the  horse  and  a  neighbor  boy  held  the  plough. 
The  horse  was  lazy.  I  pounded  him  with  my  heels 
and  the  neighbor  boy  threw  clods  at  him,  but  he 
would  not  go  much,  till  one  day  a  blue-headed  fly 


198  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

lit  on  his  back  and  began  to  get  in  his  work.  The 
horse  could  not  switch  him  off,  and  started  to  run. 
The  neighbor  boy  cried:  'Abe,  Abe,  knock  off  the 
fly.'  I  said:  'No  you  don't,  isn't  that  just  what  we 
want?'  If  Chase  has  anything  in  his  head  that  will 
make  him  work  for  the  Republic,  isn't  that  just 
what  we  want?"12 

The  following  is  part  of  a  conversation  between 
President  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Chittenden,  Register 
of  the  Treasury,  during  the  Civil  War:  "That 
the  Almighty  does  make  use  of  human  agencies,  and 
intervenes  in  human  affairs,  is  one  of  the  plainest 
statements  in  the  Bible.  I  have  had  so  many  evi- 
dences of  His  direction,  so  many  instances  when  I 
have  been  controlled  by  some  other  power  than  my 
own  will,  that  I  cannot  doubt  that  this  power  comes 
from  above.  I  frequently  see  my  way  clear  to  a  deci- 
sion when  I  am  conscious  that  I  have  not  sufficient 
facts  upon  which  to  found  it.  But  I  cannot  recall 
one  instance  in  which  I  have  followed  my  own  judg- 
ment, founded  upon  such  a  decision,  where  the  re- 
sults were  unsatisfactory ;  whereas,  in  almost  every 
instance  where  I  have  yielded  to  the  views  of  others, 
I  have  had  occasion  to  regret  it.  I  am  satisfied  that, 
when  the  Almighty  wants  me  to  do,  or  not  to  do, 
a  particular  thing,  He  finds  a  way  of  letting  me 
know  it.  I  am  confident  that  it  is  His  design  to 
restore  the  Union.  He  will  do  it  in  His  own  good 
time.    We  should  obey  and  not  oppose  His  will."18 

Here  we  have  in  Lincoln's  own  words  that  mys- 
ticism and  prophetic  attitude  so  apparent  in  his  boy- 
hood days  in  Indiana.  As  a  boy  he  never  took  his 
associates  into  his  full  confidence;  he  held  aloof 
from  them  and  wanted  to  work  out  his  own  prob- 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIEK  199 

lems  in  his  own  way.  We  have  evidence  from  his 
associates  in  Indiana  that  on  account  of  this  pecu- 
liarity they  would  have  looked  upon  young  Lincoln 
as  a  bigot  had  he  not  been  so  fair  and  so  honest  in 
everything.  As  a  man  in  Illinois  he  still  held  aloof 
from  his  fellow  men  and  avoided  their  counsel.  As 
President  he  did  the  same,  saying  that  when  he  did 
give  way  to  advice  he  nearly  always  made  a  mis- 
take ;  but  when  he  acted  alone  and  followed  his  own 
judgment  he  never  erred.  But,  let  us  remember, 
that  judgment  was  always  directed  by  the  hand  of 
God,  so  President  Lincoln  believed.  Here,  again, 
we  see  Lincoln  the  man  but  Lincoln  the  boy.  His 
manhood  is  but  a  continuation  of  his  boyhood. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  President  Lincoln 
and  his  cabinet  members  were  discussing  what 
should  be  done  with  Jefferson  Davis  and  other  Con- 
federate leaders.  Most  of  the  Cabinet  members 
favored  dire  punishment  for  the  leaders  of  the  Con- 
federacy. When  Lincoln  was  asked  for  his  opinion, 
he  replied  with  one  of  his  numerous  Indiana  boy- 
hood stories.  He  said:  ".  .  .  When  I  was  a  boy  in 
Indiana,  I  went  to  a  neighbor's  house  one  morning 
and  found  a  boy  of  my  own  size  holding  a  coon  by 
a  string.  I  asked  him  what  he  had  and  what  he 
was  doing.  He  says,  'It's  a  coon.  Dad  cotched  six 
last  night,  and  killed  all  but  this  poor  little  cuss. 
Dad  told  me  to  hold  him  until  he  came  back,  and 
I'm  afraid  he's  going  to  kill  this  one  too;  and  oh, 
Abe,  I  do  wish  he  would  get  away!'  'Well,  why 
don't  you  let  him  loose?'  That  wouldn't  be  right; 
and  if  I  let  him  go  Dad  would  give  me  hell.  But  if 
he  would  get  away  himself,  it  would  be  all  right.' 
"Now,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "if  Jeff  Davis  and  those 


200  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

other  fellows  will  only  get  away,  it  will  be  all  right. 
But  if  we  should  catch  them,  and  I  should  let  them 
go,  'Dad  would  give  me  hell/  "14 

Lincoln's  melancholy  disposition,  which  re- 
mained with  him  all  his  life,  can  to  a  large  degree 
be  traced  back  to  his  Indiana  home.  Tradition  has 
it  that  before  coming  to  Indiana  his  mother  took 
him  to  a  little  spot  in  Kentucky  and  gave  him  a  sad 
start  for  his  new  home  when  she  poured  out  her 
tears  over  the  grave  of  his  little  brother  who  was 
buried  there.  The  death  of  his  mother,  whom  he 
loved  most  dearly,  soon  followed  and  helped  to  bur- 
den his  heart.  Then  he  saw  the  struggle  of  his 
father  to  keep  together  in  his  home  three  sets  of 
orphan  children  and  how  such  a  big  family  kept  his 
father  from  getting  on  in  the  world.  Soon  his  sis- 
ter died  and  another  great  sorrow  fell  upon  him. 
Then  came  the  departure  from  the  old  friends  and 
the  removal  to  a  new  land ;  soon  followed  the  death 
of  the  one  woman  that  Lincoln  loved — Ann  Rut- 
ledge.15  Then  struggles,  trials,  heartaches.  Soon 
came  the  Presidency  and  a  great  Civil  war  in  which 
brother  was  arrayed  against  brother  and  section 
against  section.  Surely  Lincoln's  cup  was  filled 
with  sorrow! 

Lincoln  the  Embodiment  of  the  Pioneer  Spirit 
of  the  Old  Northwest 

In  addressing  an  Indiana  regiment  of  Civil 
War  soldiers  President  Lincoln  said:  "I  was  born 
in  Kentucky,  raised  in  Indiana,  and  now  live  in  Illi- 
nois." Mr.  Iglehart  says :  "The  Lincoln  type,  in  fig- 
ure, movement,  features,  facial  make-up,  simplicity 
of  speech  and  thought,  gravity  of  countenance,  and 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER  201 

integrity  and  truthfulness  of  life,  as  it  stands  ac- 
credited by  the  vast  number  of  writers  on  Lincoln, 
is  in  a  substantial  degree  a  Hoosier  type  in  South- 
ern Indiana  today.  It  may  still  be  found  in  the 
judge  on  the  bench,  the  lawyer  at  the  bar,  the 
preacher  in  the  pulpit,  and  others  descended  from 
pioneer  stock  who  are  forceful  and  intelligent  lead- 
ers of  the  common  people.  .  .  .  The  ideals  operat- 
ing on  Lincoln  in  his  youth  while  he  was  a  Southern 
Indiana  Hoosier  at  the  time,  in  the  location  we  are 
considering,  as  compared  with  those  then  existing 
in  slave  territory,  are  thus  stated  by  Turner' ' : 

"The  natural  democractic  tendencies  that  had 
earlier  shown  themselves  in  the  Gulf  States  were 
destroyed,  however,  by  the  spread  of  cotton  culture 
and  the  development  of  great  plantations  in  that  re- 
gion. What  had  been  typical  of  the  democracy  of 
the  Revolutionary  frontier  and  of  the  frontier  of 
Andrew  Jackson  was  now  to  be  seen  in  the  states 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi.  As  Andrew 
Jackson  is  the  typical  democrat  of  the  former  re- 
gion, so  Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  very  embodiment 
of  the  pioneer  period  of  the  Old  Northwest.  In- 
deed, he  is  the  embodiment  of  the  democracy  of  the 
West." 

"The  pioneer  life  from  which  Lincoln  came  dif- 
fered in  important  respects  from  the  frontier  de- 
mocracy typified  by  Andrew  Jackson.  Jackson's 
democracy  was  contentious,  individualistic,  and  it 
sought  the  ideal  of  local  self-government  and  ex- 
pansion. Lincoln  represents  rather  the  pioneer  folk 
who  entered  the  forest  of  the  great  northwest  to 
chop  out  a  home,  to  build  up  their  fortunes  in  the 
midst  of  a  continually  ascending  industrial  move- 


202  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

ment.  In  the  democracy  of  the  southwest,  indus- 
trial development  and  city  life  were  only  minor 
factors,  but  to  the  democracy  of  the  northwest  they 
were  its  very  life.  To  widen  the  area  of  the  clear- 
ing, to  contend  with  one  another  for  the  mastery 
of  the  industrial  resources  of  the  rich  provinces, 
to  struggle  for  a  place  in  the  ascending  movement 
of  society,  to  transmit  to  one's  offspring  the  chance 
for  education,  for  industrial  betterment,  for  the  rise 
in  life  which  the  hardships  of  the  pioneer  existence 
denied  to  the  pioneer  himself,  these  were  some  of 
the  ideals  of  the  region  to  which  Lincoln  came.  The 
men  were  commonwealth  builders,  industrial  build- 
ers. Whereas  the  type  of  hero  in  the  southwest  was 
militant,  in  the  northwest  he  was  industrial.  It  was 
in  the  midst  of  these  "plain  people"  as  he  loved  to 
call  them,  that  Lincoln  grew  to  manhood.  As  Emer- 
son says:  'He  is  the  true  history  of  the  American 
people  in  his  time/  The  years  of  his  early  life  were 
the  years  when  the  democracy  of  the  northwest 
came  into  struggle  with  the  institution  of  slavery 
that  threatened  to  forbid  the  expansion  of  the 
democratic  pioneer  life  in  the  west."16 

No  other  writer  has  interpreted  frontier  life  in 
its  true  meaning  as  has  Dr.  Frederick  G.  Turner. 
He  makes  Abraham  Lincoln  the  embodiment  of  that 
life.  Lincoln  did  not  have  his  being  nor  live  his 
life  in  that  low  class  of  people,  as  described  in  Eg- 
gleston's  Hoosier  Schoolmaster  and  Hall's  New  Pur- 
chase, which  Dr.  Turner  properly  calls  "the  scum 
that  the  waves  of  advancing  civilization  bore  before 
them,"17  but  rather  in  that  higher  plane  as  repre- 
sented by  the  Owenite  settlement,  the  British  settle- 
ment, and  by  men  like  Judge  Pitcher.18 


lincoln  the  hoos1er  203 

The  Things  That  Were  Found  in  Lincoln  as  a 
Man  Were  Found  in  Him  as  a  Boy 
We  can  enumerate  here  only  a  few  of  those  out- 
standing characteristics  that  were  found  in  Lincoln 
the  man  and  Lincoln  the  youth: 

1.  His  love  for  the  Union. 

2.  His  hatred  for  the  institution  of  slavery. 

3.  His  rugged  honesty,  truthfulness,  and  sincerity. 

4.  His  integrity  and  conscientiousness. 

5.  His  humaneness. 

6.  His  belief  that  "right  is  might." 

7.  His  well  known  sense  of  fairness. 

8.  His  abiding  faith  in  Providence. 

9.  His  freedom  from  bad  habits. 

10.  His  simplicity  of  life. 

11.  His  democratic  spirit. 

12.  His  approachableness  and  sociability. 

13.  His  great  faith  in  the  common  people. 

14.  His  great  power  of  reasoning. 

15.  His  intense  veneration  of  the  true  and  the 
good. 

16.  His  cool,  calculating  logic. 

17.  His  power  with  the  pen. 

18.  His  inimitable  style  in  public  addresses. 

19.  His  quaint  wit  and  humor. 

20.  His  ability  as  a  story  teller. 

21.  His  methods  of  original  investigation. 

22.  His  peculiar  style  in  controversial  questions. 

23.  His  platform  mannerisms. 

24.  His  strange  and  weird  melancholy. 

25.  His  superstitious  beliefs. 

26.  His  Calvanistic  fatalism. 

In  the  hills  of  Southern  Indiana  Abraham  Lin- 
coln developed  the  above  characteristics  that  make 


204  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

up  "the  mosaic  of  his  great  character."  They  are 
not  all  that  have  gone  into  the  fabric  of  this  un- 
fathomed  and  unfathomable  man  but  they  suffice  to 
justify  the  Hoosier's  claim  that  Lincoln  is  Indiana's 
"Man  of  the  Ages."  But  the  Hoosier  state  cannot 
claim  him  wholly  for  he  has  outgrown  the  bound- 
aries of  that  great  commonwealth  and  the  bound- 
aries of  all  commonwealths  to  become  the  first  great 
American !  But  he  is  more  than  that — he  is  a  citi- 
zen of  the  world. 

How  Do  We  Account  for  Abraham  Lincoln? 

Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  just  happen.  His  gen- 
ius was  made  possible  because  he  made  it  possible. 
He  came  into  the  world  with  certain  gifts  and  en- 
dowments— good  blood  from  both  sides  of  his  house. 
He  read  the  best  books,  he  talked  with  the  most 
cultured  people,  he  studied,  he  thought,  he  worked. 
The  great  deeds  of  his  life  have  their  origin  in  his 
preparation  for  them.  We  can  account  for  the 
great  deeds,  the  sublime  thoughts,  the  superb 
speeches,  and  the  classic  writings  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln because  it  was  in  him  to  do  those  things.  It 
was  in  him  because  he  paid  the  price  to  make  it  so. 
Lincoln  at  fifty-five  was  the  same  man  he  was  at 
twenty-one,  ripened  by  experience.  In  his  boyhood 
days  in  Southern  Indiana  there  was  laid  that  true 
foundation  upon  which  his  life  rested.  That  In- 
diana environment  —  physical  and  intellectual  — 
helped  the  man,  who  was  willing  to  help  himself,  to 
mould  a  character  strong  enough  and  true  enough 
to  stand  the  shock  of  a  great  Civil  War,  to  save  the 
Union,  and  to  bid  a  race  go  free ! 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  LINCOLNS  MOVE  TO  ILLINOIS 

The  Route  Followed 

Son  of  the  Western  World!  whose  heritage 
Was  the  vast  prairie  and  the  boundless  sky. 

— J.  P.  Baxter. 

In  1828  John  Hanks,  who  had  lived  with  the 
Lincoln  family  in  Indiana  for  four  years,  but  who 
was  then  in  Kentucky,  moved  to  Illinois.  He  wrote 
to  the  Lincolns,  told  them  of  his  new  home,  and 
painted  the  picture  so  bright  that  Dennis  Hanks 
went  over  to  view  the  country.  Dennis  was  so  taken 
up  with  it  that  he  came  back  and  made  prepara- 
tions to  move.  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  induced  to  go 
along  for  she  did  not  want  to  be  separated  from  her 
daughters,  Mrs.  Dennis  Hanks  and  Mrs.  Levi  Hall. 

Dennis  Hanks,  John  Johnston,  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  went  in  search  of  oxen  needed  for  the  trip. 
They  secured  two  from  Allen  Brooner  and  two  from 
Mr.  Hall.  The  Lincolns  spent  their  last  night  in 
Spencer  County  in  the  home  of  Mr.  Gentry  in  Gen- 
tryville.  There  young  Lincoln  bought  thirty  dollars' 
worth  of  notions  and  trinkets.  Speaking  of  this, 
Captain  William  Jones,  son  of  the  storekeeper  for 
whom  Lincoln  worked,  says:  "A  set  of  knives  and 
forks  was  the  largest  item  entered  on  the  bill;  the 
other  items  were  needles,  pins,  thread,  buttons,  and 
other  little  domestic  necessities.  When  the  Lincolns 
reached  their  new  home  near  Decatur,  Illinois, 
Abraham  wrote  back  to  my  father,  stating  that  he 
had  doubled  his  money  on  his  purchases  by  selling 

205 


206 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance    Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana* — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

The   old   Vincennes,   Indiana,   cathedral.     This   old 

structure,  which  is  still  standing,  was  one  of  the  last 

bits  of  Indiana  seen  by  young  Lincoln  as  he  left  the 

Hoosier  State  for  Illinois  in  1830 

them  along  the  road.  Unfortunately  we  did  not 
keep  that  letter,  not  thinking  how  highly  we  would 
have  prized  it  in  years  afterwards/'1 

The  morning  of  their  departure,  in  March,  1830, 
saw  a  great  number  of  their  old  neighbors  out  to 
bid  them  good-bye  and  God  speed.  One  of  them 
in  describing  the  scene,  said  that  "Abe  drove  the 
oxen,  having  a  rope  attached  to  the  horn  of  a  lead 


THE  LINCOLNS  MOVE  TO  ILLINOIS  207 

ox,  and  with  a  hickory  'gad'  in  his  free  hand."2 
Redmond  D.  Grigsby  said:  "I  was  twelve  years  old 
when  the  Lincolns  left  for  Illinois.  I  helped  to 
hitch  the  two  yokes  of  oxen  to  the  wagon,  and  went 
with  them  half  a  mile." 

They  journeyed  northward  through  Jasper  and 
Petersburg  to  Vincennes.  There  young  Lincoln  saw 
his  first  printing  press  in  the  office  of  the  Western 
Sun.  He  also  saw  the  old  cathedral  and  the  mansion 
of  William  Henry  Harrison,  buildings  that  are  still 
standing.  Crossing  the  Wabash  river  not  far  from 
the  home  of  Alice  Roussillon  in  Alice  of  Old  Vin- 
cennes, they  journeyed  to  Lawrenceville.  From 
there  the  route  was  as  follows:  Christian  Settle- 
ment, Russellville,  Palestine,  Hutsonville,  York, 
Darwin,  Richwoods,  McCann's  Ford,  Paradise,  Mat- 
toon,  Dead  Man's  Grove,  Nelson,  Decatur,  'Lincoln 
Farm/  Macon  County.3 

Speaking  of  the  removal  of  Thomas  Lincoln 
from  Indiana  to  Illinois,  the  Indiana  Commission 
says  in  its  report:  ".  .  .  The  emigrant  party  com- 
prised thirteen  persons  and  included  Thomas  and 
Sarah  Bush  Lincoln,  their  two  sons,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln and  John  D.  Johnston;  Squire  Hall,  his  wife, 
Matilda  Johnston,  and  son,  John ;  Dennis  Hanks,  his 
wife,  Elizabeth  Johnston,  and  four  children:  Sarah 
J.,  Nancy  M.,  Harriet  A.,  and  John  T.  Hall  and 
Hanks  had  married  the  two  daughters  of  Mrs. 
Lincoln. 

"The  journey  was  long  and  tedious,  the  streams 
swollen  and  the  roads  muddy  to  the  point  of  im- 
passability.  The  rude  wagon  with  its  primitive 
wooden  wheels  creaked  and  groaned  as  it  crawled 
through  the  woods  and  now  and  then  stalled  in  the 


208 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


mud.  Many  were  the  delays,  but  none  ever  dis- 
turbed the  equanimity  of  its  passengers.  They  were 
cheerful  in  the  face  of  adversity,  hopeful  and  deter- 
mined ;  but  none  of  them  more  so  than  the  ungainly 
youth  in  buckskin  breeches  and  coonskin  cap  who 
wielded  the  gad  and  urged  the  patient  oxen  forward. 
As  they  entered  the  new  State  little  did  the  curious 
people  in  the  various  towns  and  villages  through 
which  they  passed  dream  that  the  obscure  and  pen- 
niless driver  who  yelled  his  commands  to  the  dumb 


Pen    drawing    by    Miss    Constance   Forsyth,    Indianapolis, 
Indiana — Courtesy  Indiana  Lincoln  Union. 

The  William  Henry  Harrison  mansion  at  Vincennes, 

Indiana,   as  it   appears  today  and  as  it  looked  to 

young  Lincoln  in  1830  when  he  saw  it  on  his  way  to 

hi*  Illinois  home 


THE  LINCOLNS  MOVE  TO  ILLINOIS  209 

oxen  was  destined  to  become  the  Chief  Magistrate 
of  the  greatest  nation  of  modern  times."4 

Writing  of  their  departure  for  Illinois,  Lincoln 
says:  ".  .  .  They  reached  the  county  of  Macon, 
and  stopped  there  some  time  within  the  same  month 
of  March.  His  father  and  family  settled  a  new 
place  on  the  north  side  of  the  Sangamon  River,  at 
the  junction  of  the  timber  land  and  prairie,  about 
ten  miles  westerly  from  Decatur.  Here  they  built 
a  log  cabin,  into  which  they  removed,  and  made 
sufficient  of  rails  to  fence  ten  acres  of  ground,  fenced 
and  broke  the  ground,  and  raised  a  crop  of  sown 
corn  upon  it  the  same  year."5 

To  those  people  who  have  spent  their  lives  pes- 
tering the  soul  of  Thomas  Lincoln  about  his  earthly 
shiftlessness,  let  it  be  said  that  when  he  left  Indiana 
for  Illinois  he  paid  up  his  debts  and  departed  from 
the  state  with  more  personal  property  than  he  had 
when  he  moved  into  it.  Not  all  pioneers  did  nearly 
so  well.6 

After  the  Lincolns  were  gone,  James  Gentry 
planted  a  cedar  tree  in  memory  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. It  is  still  standing  near  the  old  Lincoln  home- 
stead, although  its  lower  limbs  are  broken  away 
by  souvenir  hunters.  Some  people  contend  that 
Mr.  Gentry  planted  the  tree  the  same  day  or  the 
next  day  after  the  Lincolns  moved  away,  but  Rev. 
Mr.  Hobson  says  that  James  Gentry  told  him  in  an 
interview  in  September,  1903,  that  he  planted  the 
cedar  tree  in  the  year  1858,  twenty-eight  years  after 
the  Lincolns  left  Indiana.7 

In  the  Republican  National  Nominating  Conven- 
tion held  in  Chicago  in  1864,  the  chairman  of  the 
Illinois  delegation  stood  in  his  place  and  said :  "The 


210  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

people  of  the  State  of  Illinois  present  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  as  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln — God  bless  him!" 

In  closing  his  little  booklet,  Lincoln  the  Greatest 
Man  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Mr.  Charles  Rey- 
nolds Brown  says:  "I  would  present  to  you  as  can- 
didate for  the  place  of  highest  honor  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln — 
God  bless  him!" 

In  ending  this  work,  the  author  wishes  to  close 
with  these  words :  I  would  present  to  you  as  candi- 
date for  the  place  of  highest  honor  in  all  past  time, 
next  after  that  of  the  Lowly  Nazarene,  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln — God  bless  him! 

"Now  he  belongs  to  the  Ages." 


Courtesy   Mrs.  J.    T.   Hobson, 
Odon,  Indiana. 

Hon.    James    Gentry,    son   of 

the  proprietor  of  Gentryville, 

Indiana 


Courtesy  Mrs.  J.   T.  Hobson, 
Odon.  Indiana. 

Captain  John  W.  Lamar,  who 
knew  Abraham  Lincoln  in 
Spencer  County,  Indiana 


Courtesy  Mrs.  J.   T.   Hobson, 

Odon,  Indiana. 

Elizabeth  Grigsby,  one  of  the 
brides  of  the  double  wedding 
which  caused  Lincoln  to  write 
the   "Chronicles    of    Reuben" 


Court  est/  Mrs.  J.   T.  Hobson, 
odon,  Indiana. 

Jacob  S.  Brother  of 
Kockport,  Indiana 


APPENDIX 

Joseph  Hanks's  Will 

"In  the  name  of  God,  Amen,  I  Joseph  Hanks  of  Nelson 
County  State  of  Kentucky  being  of  sound  Mind  and  Memory, 
but  weak  in  body  and  calling  to  Mind  the  frailty  of  all  Hu- 
man Nature  do  make  and  Devise  this  my  last  Will  and 
Testament  in  the  Manner  and  Form  following  To  Wit 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  Son  Thomas  one  Sor- 
rel Horse  called  Major. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  son  Joshua  one  Grey 
Mare  called  Bonney. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  son  William  one  Grey 
Horse  called  Gilbert. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  son  Charles  one  Roan 
Horse  called  Dove. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  son  Joseph  one  Sor- 
rel Horse  called  Bald.  Also  the  Land  whereon  I  now  live 
containing  one  hundred  and  fifty  Acres. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  Daughter  Elizabeth 
one  Heifer  Yearling  called  Gentle. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  Daughter  Polly  one 
Heifer  Yearling  called  Lady. 

Item  I  give  and  bequeath  unto  my  daughter  Nancy  one 
Heifer  Yearling  called  Peidy. 

Item  I  Give  and  bequeath  unto  my  Wife  Nanny  all  and 
Singular  my  whole  Estate  during  her  life,  afterwards  to  be 
equally  divided  between  all  my  Children.  It  is  my  Will 
and  Desire  that  the  whole  of  the  Property  above  bequeathed 
should  be  the  property  of  my  Wife  during  her  life.  And 
lastly  I  constitute  ordain  and  appoint  my  wife  Nanny  and 
my  Son  William  as  Executrix  and  Executor  to  this  my  last 
Will  and  Testament. 

Signed  Sealed  and  Delivered 

In  Presence  of  Us  this  eighth  his 

day  of  January  one  thousand  seven  John  x  Hanks 

hundred  and  ninety  three.  mark 

Isaac  Lansdale 

John  Davis  (Seal) 

Peter  Atherton 

211 


212  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

At  a  Court  begun  and  held  for  Nelson  County  on  Tuesday 
the  fourteenth  day  of  May  1793. 

This  last  Will  and  Testament  of  Joseph  Hanks  dcd  was 
produced  in  Court  and  sworn  to  by  William  Hanks  one  of 
the  Executors  therein  named  and  was  proved  by  the  Oaths  of 
Isaac  Lansdale  and  John  Davis  subscribing  witnesses  thereto 
and  Ordered  to  be  Recorded. 
Teste 

Ben  Grayson  Co.  CK." 

The  Marriage  Return  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Nancy  Hanks 

The  following  is  the  return  of  marriages  including  that  of 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks,  by  Rev.  Jesse  Head.  It 
was  copied  from  the  original  in  the  office  of  the  County  Clerk 
in  Springfield,  Washington  County,  Kentucky. 

I  do  hereby  certify  that  the  following  is  a  true  list  of  the 
Marriages  Solemnized  by  me  the  subsciber  from  the  28th  of 
April  1806  untill  the  date  hereof. 

June  26th  Joined  together  in  the  Holy  Estate  of  Matri- 
mony agreeable  to  the  rules  of  the  M.  E.  C.  Morris  Berry 
&  Peggy  Simms 

Nov  27th  1806  David  Mige  (?)  &  Hannah  Xten  (?) 
March  5th  1807  Charles  Ridge  &  Anna  Davis 
March  24th  1807  John  Head  &  Sally  Clark 
Marh  27th  Benjamin  Clark  &  Dolly  Head 
Jan  14th  Edward  Pyle  &  Rosannah  McMahon 
Dec  22nd  1806  Silas  Chamberlin  &  Betsey  West 
June  17th  1806  John  Springer  &  Elizabeth  Ingram 
June  12th  1806  Thomas  Lincoln  &  Nancy  Hanks 
September  23rd  1806  John  Cambion  &  Hanah  White 
October  2nd  1806  Anthony  Lykey  &  Keziah  Putte 
October  23rd  Aaron  Harding  &  Hannah  Rottet 
April  5  1807  Daniel  Payne  &  Christiana  Pierre 
July  26  1806  Benjamin  Clark  &  Polly  Clark 
May  1806  Hugh  Haskins  &  Betsey  Dyer 
September  25  1806  John  Graham  &  Catherine  Jones 
Given  under  my  hand  this  22nd  day  of  April  1807 

Jesse  Head,  D.  M.  E.  C. 


APPENDIX  213 

Marriage  Bond  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  marriage  bond  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  taken  from  the  original  at  Spring- 
field, Washington  County,  Kentucky. 

Know  all  men  by  these  presents  that  we  Thomas  Lincoln 
and  Richard  Berry  are  held  and  firmly  bound  unto  his  Ex- 
cellency the  governor  of  Kentucky  for  the  Just  and  full  sum 
of  fifty  pounds  current  money  to  the  payment  of  which  well 
and  truly  to  be  made  to  the  said  governor  and  his  successors 
we  bind  ourselves  and  our  heirs  &c  Jointly  and  severally 
firmly  by  these  presents  sealed  with  our  seals  and  dated  this 
10th  day  of  June,  1806.  The  Condition  of  the  above  Obliga- 
tion is  such  that  whereas  there  is  a  marriage  shortly  in- 
tended between  the  above  bound  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks  for  which  a  license  has  issued  now  if  there  be  no  law- 
ful cause  to  obstruct  the  said  marriage  then  this  obligation 
to  be  Void  or  else  to  remain  in  full  force  &  virtue  in  law. 

Thomas  Lincoln   (Seal) 
Richard  Berry   (Seal) 
Witness,  John  H.  Parrott. 

Affidavit  of  Dr.  Christopher  Columbus  Graham 

The  following  affidavit  was  made  by  a  physician  and 
scientist,  Dr.  Christopher  Columbus  Graham  at  Evansville, 
Indiana,  when  he  was  visiting  there  in  the  home  of  J.  W. 
Wartmann,  Deputy  Clerk  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court. 

"I,  Christopher  C.  Graham,  now  of  Louisville,  Kentucky, 
aged  ninety-eight  years,  on  my  oath  say:  That  I  was  present 
at  the  marriage  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  in 
Washington  County,  near  the  town  of  Springfield,  Kentucky; 
that  one  Jesse  Head,  a  Methodist  preacher  of  Springfield, 
Kentucky,  performed  the  ceremony.  I  knew  the  said  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  well,  and  know  the  said  Nancy 
Hanks  to  have  been  virtuous  and  respectable,  and  of  good 
parentage.  I  do  not  remember  the  exact  date  of  the  mar- 
riage, but  was  present  at  the  marriage  aforesaid ;  and  I  make 
this  affidavit  freely,  and  at  the  request  of  J.  W.  Wartmann 
to  whom,  for  the  first  time,  I  have  this  day  incidentally 
stated  the  fact  of  my  presence  at  the  said  wedding  of  Presi- 


214  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

dent  Lincoln's  father  and  mother.  I  make  this  affidavit  to 
vindicate  the  character  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks, 
and  to  put  to  rest  forever  the  legitimacy  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's birth.  I  was  formerly  proprietor  of  Harrcdsburgh 
Springs;  I  am  a  retired  physician,  and  am  now  a  resident  of 
Louisville,  Kentucky.  I  think  Felix  Grundy  was  also  present 
at  the  marriage  of  said  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks, 
the  father  and  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  said  Jesse 
Head,  the  officiating  minister  at  the  marriage  aforesaid, 
afterward  removed  to  Harrodsburgh,  Kentucky,  and  edited 
a  paper  there  and  died  at  that  place." 

Christopher  Columbus  Graham. 
Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  March  20,  A.  D. 
1882.     N.  C.  Butler,  clerk  United  States  Circuit  Court,  First 
District,  Indiana,  by  J.  W.  Wartmann,  Deputy  Clerk. 

Statement  of  Dr.  Christopher  Columbus  Graham 

Two  years  after  making  the  above  affidavit  Dr.  Graham 
made  a  more  extended  statement  about  the  marriage  of 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks.  It  was  published  in  the 
Louisville  Courier-J ournal.  The  following  are  excerpts  from 
it:  "I,  Christopher  Columbus  Graham  now  in  my  hundredth 
year,  and  visiting  the  Southern  Exposition  in  Louisville, 
where  I  live,  tell  this  to  please  my  young  friend  Henry  Cleve- 
land, who  is  nearly  half  my  age.  ...  I  am  one  of  the  two 
living  men  who  can  prove  that  Abraham  Lincoln  or  Link- 
horn,  as  the  family  was  miscalled,  was  born  in  lawful  wed- 
lock, for  I  saw  Thomas  Lincoln  marry  Nancy  Hanks.  .  .  . 
He  was  born  at  what  was  then  known  as  the  Rock  Spring 
Farm — it  is  now  called  the  Creal  Place — three  miles  south 
of  Hodgenville,  in  La  Rue  County,  Kentucky.  .  .  .  Nancy 
lived  with  the  Sparrow  family  a  good  bit.  ...  I  was  hunt- 
ing roots  for  my  medicines,  and  just  went  to  the  wedding  to 
get  a  good  supper,  and  got  it.  .  .  . 

Before  a  license  could  be  had,  a  bond  and  security  was 
taken  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the  preacher  had  to  return  to 
the  court  all  marriages  of  the  year.  .  .  . 

Tom  Lincoln  was  a  carpenter,  and  a  good  one  for  those 
days,  when  a  cabin  was  built  mainly  with  the  ax,  and  not 
a  nail  or  bolt  or  hinge  in  it,  only  leather  and  pins  to  the 


APPENDIX  215 

door,  and  no  glass,  except  in  watches  and  spectacles  and 
bottles.  Tom  had  the  best  set  of  tools  in  what  was  then 
and  now  Washington  County.  La  Rue  County,  where  the 
farm  was  settled,  was  then  Hardin. 

Jesse  Head,  the  good  Methodist  preacher  that  married 
them,  was  also  a  carpenter  or  cabinet  maker  by  trade,  and 
as  he  was  then  a  neighbor,  they  were  good  friends.  .  .  . 

The  preacher  Jesse  Head  often  talked  to  me  on  religion 
and  politics,  for  I  always  liked  the  Methodists.  I  have 
thought  it  might  have  been  as  much  from  his  free-spoken 
opinions  as  from  Henry  Clay's  American-African  Coloniza- 
tion scheme  in  1817,  that  I  lost  a  likely  negro  man,  who  was 
leader  of  my  musicians.  .  .  . 

Tom  Lincoln  and  Nancy,  and  Sally  Bush  were  just 
steeped  full  of  Jesse  Head's  notions  about  the  wrong  of 
slavery  and  the  right  of  man  as  explained  by  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son and  Thomas  Paine.  Abe  Lincoln  the  Liberator  was  made 
in  his  mother's  womb  and  father's  brain  and  in  the  prayers 
of  Sally  Bush;  by  the  talks  and  sermons  of  Jesse  Head,  the 
Methodist  Circuit  rider,  assistant  county  judge,  printer-edi- 
tor, and  cabinet-maker.  Little  Abe  grew  up  to  serve  as  a 
cabinet-maker  himself  two  Presidential  terms.  .  .  . 

I  will  say  that  I  saw  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  at  her  wed- 
ding, a  fresh  loking  girl,  I  should  say  over  twenty.  Tom 
was  a  respectable  mechanic  and  could  choose,  and  she  was 
treated  with  respect.  ...  I  was  at  the  infare,  too.  .  .  .  We 
had  bear  meat  (that  you  can  eat  the  grease  of,  and  it  not 
rise  like  other  fats)  ;  venison,  wild  turkey  and  ducks;  eggs, 
wild  and  tame  (so  common  that  you  could  buy  them  at  two 
bits  a  bushel)  ;  maple  sugar,  swung  on  a  string,  to  bite  off 
for  coffee  or  whiskey ;  syrup  in  big  gourds ;  peach-and-honey ; 
a  sheep  that  two  families  barbecued  whole  over  coals  of  wood 
burned  in  a  pit,  and  covered  with  green  boughs  to  keep  the 
juices  in;  and  a  race  for  the  whiskey  bottle.  .  .  .  Our  table 
was  of  the  puncheons  cut  from  solid  logs,  and  on  the  next 
day  they  were  the  floor  of  the  new  cabin. 

It  is  all  stuff  about  Tom  Lincoln  keeping  his  wife  in  an 
open  shed  in  a  winter  when  the  wild  animals  left  the  woods 
and  stood  in  the  corners  next  to  the  stick-and-clay  chimneys, 
so  as  not  to  freeze  to  death;  or  if  climbers,  got  on  the  roof. 


216  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

The  Lincolns  had  a  cow  and  calf,  milk  and  butter,  a  good 
feather  bed,  for  I  have  slept  in  it  (while  they  took  the  buffalo 
robes  on  the  floor  because  I  was  a  doctor).  They  had  home- 
woven  "kiverlids,"  big  and  little  pots,  a  loom  and  wheel; 
and  William  Hardesty,  who  was  there  too,  can  say  with  me 
that  Tom  Lincoln  was  a  man  and  took  care  of  his  wife." 

Christopher  Columbus  Graham 
in  my  lOOdrth  year. 

Wm.  E.  Barton  on  the  Statements  of  Mr.  Graham 

Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  E.  Barton,  one  of  the  most  accurate  of  the 
writers  on  Lincoln,  severely  criticises  the  affidavit  made  by 
Mr.  Graham.     He  says: 

"Doctor  Graham  was  then  ninety-eight  years  old,  so  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  old  man  forgot  to  tell  that  he  had 
been  present  when  Jesse  Head  married  Doctor  Graham  him- 
self to  Theresa  Sutton,  October  8,  1820.  Instead,  he  fancied 
that  he  had  been  present  at  the  marriage  of  Thomas  and 
Nancy  Lincoln.  The  more  he  was  interviewed,  the  more  he 
remembered.  His  affidavit  issued  in  his  one-hundredth  year 
elaborated  considerably  the  original  statement,  and  the  final 
form  of  his  story  was  he  had  been  present  at  the  marriage 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  himself. 

"If  Doctor  Graham  had  actually  been  present  at  the  mar- 
riage of  Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln,  there  was  a  period  of 
several  years  in  which  he  could  have  rendered  a  most  valuable 
service  by  telling  of  the  fact.  He  did  not  publish  it  then, 
nor  until  his  story  was  practically  valueless  as  evidence.  At 
every  point  where  he  attempted  to  enlarge  upon  the  informa- 
tion which  the  records  gave,  his  statement  was  untrue.  He 
probably  never  saw  the  Lincolns.  Miss  Tarbell  has  not  as- 
sisted us  in  her  wide-spread  publication  of  Doctor  Graham's 
story.  He  was  an  old  man  in  his  dotage,  in  the  hands  of 
men  some  of  whom  had  their  own  reasons  for  wanting  him 
to  testify  as  he  did.  And  it  is  this  man's  testimony  that 
furnishes  much  of  the  information  in  the  tablets  upon  the 
walls  of  the  Lincoln  memorial  at  Hodgenville. 

"It  is  discouraging  to  have  these  fabrications  wide-spread 
by  authors  who  intend  to  be  truthful,  and  then  accepted  by 
a  public  that  has  all  too  little  discrimination.     Doctor  Gra- 


APPENDIX  217 

ham,  in  his  garrulous  romancing,  told  that  Jesse  Head  was  an 
ardent  abolitionist,  Graham  himself  being  a  slave-holder  and 
a  southern  sympathizer;  that  Thomas  Lincoln  and  both  of 
his  wives  were  'chockfull  of  the  liberty-loving  principles' 
which  Head  had  derived  from  Thomas  Paine  and  others,  and 
that  thus  Thomas  Lincoln  became  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
born,  an  abolitionist.  He  further  said  that  Jesse  Head  could 
have  afforded  slaves,  but  did  not  own  them.  He  might  better 
have  said  that  Jesse  Head  could  not  afford  slaves,  but  did 
own  them.  Both  in  Washington  and  Mercer  Counties,  Jesse 
Head  was  a  slave-owner.  .  .  . 

"On  the  question  of  slavery,  Jesse  Head  was  neither  in 
advance  of  nor  behind  his  own  generation.  He  was  a  good 
man,  a  worthy  and  faithful  pioneer  preacher;  but  none  of 
the  things  that  Christopher  Columbus  Graham  tells  of  him 
are  true."1 

Now  let  us  say  at  the  beginning  of  our  criticism  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Barton's  attack  upon  the  statements  of  Christopher  Col- 
umbus Graham  that  the  author  respects  the  great  ability  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Barton  as  a  research  scholar  and  writer  and  wishes 
to  state  that  historians  owe  him  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  for 
his  painstaking  efforts,  but  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  may  be  wrong 
just  as  well  as  the  rest  of  us  and  when  he  is  wrong  or 
when  he  makes  statements,  not  supported  by  evidence,  he,  too, 
should  be  called  to  account  and  just  as  bluntly  as  he  calls 
Miss  Tarbell  or  Mrs.  Hitchcock  or  Mr.  Herndon  or  Mr.  Lamon 
when  they  are  mistaken  as  to  fact.  Now  it  is  a  pretty  strong 
statement  to  say  that  Mr.  Graham  "probably  never  saw  the 
Lincolns."  True  it  is  Mr.  Graham  was  old  when  he  gave  his 
statement  about  the  marriage  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks.  But  is  it  not  true  that  many  statements  made  about 
the  life  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  in  Kentucky 
and  about  the  boyhood  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Kentucky  and 
Indiana  have  been  made  by  old  men  and  women  but  have 
not  been  so  questioned  as  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  has  questioned 
those  of  Mr.  Graham?  We  may  rest  assured  that  the  state- 
ments Rev.  Dr.  Barton  secured  from  Mr.  Francis  X.  Rapier 
in  1920  in  regard  to  the  life  of  the  Lincolns  in  Kentucky  came 
from  the  lips  of  an  old  man.  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  does  not  ques- 
tion them,  although  he  says  that  this  was  the  first  time  Mr. 


218  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Rapier  was  ever  interviewed  about  the  Lincolns,  thus  show- 
ing us  at  once  that  his  statements  have  never  had  a  chance 
to  be  cross-examined  in  the  bright  light  of  publicity.  Are 
the  statements  of  some  old  people  to  be  accepted  wholly  and 
others  rejected  wholly?  The  author  knows  personally  the 
Wartmann  family  and  if  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  had  this  family  in 
mind  when  he  said  "He  was  an  old  man  in  his  dotage,  in 
the  hands  of  men  some  of  whom  had  their  own  reasons  for 
wanting  him  to  testify  as  he  did,"  the  author  believes  Rev. 
Dr.  Barton  is  mistaken.  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  rather  infers  that 
Mr.  Graham  was  somewhat  wrong  in  fact  and  inconsistent 
when  he  said  that  Rev.  Head  was  an  abolitionist.  Rev.  Dr. 
Barton  is  right  in  stating  that  Rev.  Head  was  a  slave  owner, 
but  that  does  not  mean  that  Mr.  Graham  need  be  wrong 
when  he  calls  Rev.  Head  an  abolitionist.  History  attests  that 
some  of  the  strongest  abolitionists  were  slave  owners  and 
some  of  them  the  greatest  men  our  country  has  produced. 
But  if  Mr.  Graham  is  inconsistent  in  calling  Rev.  Head  an 
abolitionist  because  he  was  a  slave  owner  then  in  what  posi- 
tion does  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  find  himself  when  he  says  in  his 
book,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  on  page  48,  the  follow- 
ing: "Mr.  Head  was  not  only  a  minister,  but  a  justice  of  the 
peace,  an  anti-slavery  man,  and  a  person  of  strong  righteous 
character."  And  again  he  says  in  the  same  book  on  page  240 
the  following:  "Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln  were  married  by 
a  Methodist  preacher,  Rev.  Jesse  Head.  He  is  known  to  have 
been  a  foe  of  slavery,  and  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that 
the  Lincoln  family  derived  some  part  of  its  love  of  freedom 
from  him."  Now  does  not  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  appear  to  be 
about  as  inconsistent  as  Mr.  Graham?  Or,  in  which  of  his 
books  is  Rev.  Dr.  Barton  right  about  Rev.  Head?  When  he 
wishes  to  discredit  Mr.  Graham  and  Miss  Tarbell  he  says  in 
his  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  Vol.  1,  page  18,  that  none  of 
the  things  that  Mr.  Graham  tells  of  Rev.  Head  are  true,  such 
as  being  an  ardent  abolitionist  and  having  liberty  loving 
principles.  But  when  he  wishes  to  establish  another  point 
in  which  he  is  much  interested  he  says  in  the  Soul  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  the  Lincolns  were  influenced  by  this  Methodist 
minister,  Rev.  Head,  who  was  the  foe  of  slavery. 


APPENDIX  219 

Extracts  from  the  "Old  Blue  Back"  Speller 

We  have  no  absolute  proof  that  young  Lincoln  was  in- 
fluenced by  the  following  reading  material  or  other  similar 
material  in  the  "Old  Blue  Back"  Speller  but  we  do  know  that 
he  read  it  at  a  time  when  his  mind  was  plastic.  And  we  do 
know  that  this  material  touched  upon  those  very  questions 
that  made  a  deep  impression  upon  Lincoln  and  upon  which 
he  spent  much  time  and  study  as  a  youth — the  Bible,  honesty, 
temperance,  truthfulness,  helpfulness,  courtesy,  piety,  affec- 
tion, obedience.  Then,  too,  we  feel  satisfied  that  the  morals 
in  the  several  fables  given  in  the  speller  were  not  lost  upon 
Lincoln.  The  story  of  the  life  of  Lincoln  the  youth  and 
Lincoln  the  man  could  almost  be  written  from  a  study  of 
these  good  and  wise  sayings  in  the  "Old  Blue  Back"  Speller. 

The  figures  following  the  extracts  refer  to  the  pages  from 
which  they  are  taken. 

1.  Do  not  go  in  the  mob.     (20) 

2.  We  love  just  and  wise  men.     (24) 

3.  The  Holy  Bible  is  the  book  of  God.     (26) 

4.  To  filch  is  to  steal;  we  must  not  filch.      (27) 

5.  Strong  drink  will  debase  a  man.     (28) 

6.  Idle  men  often  delay  till  tomorrow  things  that  should  be 
done  today.     (28) 

7.  Good  men  obey  the  laws  of  God.     (29) 

8.  Wise  men  employ  their  time  in  doing  good  to  all  around 
them.     (29) 

9.  A  good  son  will  help  his  father.     (33) 

10.  Good  boys  will  use  their  boooks  with  care.     (37) 

11.  No  man  can  make  a  good  plea  for  a  dram.     (40) 

12.  The  man  who  drinks  rum  may   soon  want   a  loaf  of 
bread.     (40) 

13.  If  you  do  a  bad  trick  you  should  own  it.     (45) 

14.  Strong  drink  leads  to  the  debasement  of  the  mind  and 
body.     (49) 

15.  Men  devoted  to  mere  amusement  misemploy  their  time. 
(50) 

16.  Washington  was  not  a  selfish  man.     He  labored  for  the 
good  of  his  country  more  than  for  himself.     (50) 

17.  We  pity  the  slavish  drinkers  of  rum.     (51) 


220  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

18.  The  drunkard's  face  will  publish  his  vice  and  his  dis- 
grace.    (51) 

19.  There  is  a  near  intimacy  between  drunkenness,  poverty, 
and  ruin.     (52) 

20.  A  witness  must  give  true  testimony.      (52) 

21.  Paternal  care  and  maternal  love  are  great  blessings  to 
children,  and  should  be  repaid  with  their  duty  and  af- 
fection.    (54) 

22.  You  must  be  good,  or  you  can  not  be  happy.     (61) 

23.  Rum,  gin,  brandy,  and  whiskey  are  destructive  enemies 
to  mankind.  They  destroy  more  lives  than  wars,  fam- 
ine and  pestilence.     (67) 

24.  The  drunkard's  course  is  progressive;  he  begins  by 
drinking  a  little,  and  shortens  his  life  by  drinking  to 
excess.     (67) 

25.  Children  should  respect  and  obey  their  parents.      (72) 

26.  The  chewing  of  tobacco  is  a  useless  custom.     (74) 

27.  Intemperance  is  the  grievous  sin  of  our  country.     (75) 

28.  Confess  your  sins  and  forsake  them.     (76) 

29.  Never  equivocate  nor  prevaricate,  but  tell  the  plain 
truth.     (77) 

30.  Never  retaliate  an  injury,  even  on  an  enemy.     (77) 

31.  Liquors  that  intoxicate  are  to  be  avoided  as  poison. 
(77) 

32.  A  pious  youth  will  speak  the  truth.     (85) 

33.  Drunkards  are  worthless  fellows,  and  despised.      (85) 

34.  To  be  useful  is  more  honorable  than  to  be  showy.     (88) 

35.  We  should  emulate  the  virtuous  actions  of  great  and 
good  men.     (104) 

36.  Good  manners  are  always  becoming;  ill  manners  are 
evidence  of  low  breding.     (105) 

37.  Do  nothing  that  is  injurious  to  religion,  to  morals,  or 
to  the  interest  of  others.     (113) 

38.  Those  who  enjoy  the  light  of  the  gospel,  and  neglect  to 
observe  its  precepts,  are  more  criminal  than  the  heathen. 
(115) 

39.  The  love  of  whiskey  has  brought  many  a  stout  fellow 
to  the  whipping-post.     (120) 

40.  How  happy  men  would  be  if  they  would  always  love 
what  is  right  and  hate  what  is  wrong.     (136) 


APPENDIX  221 

Extracts  from  Weems's  Life  of  Washington 

The  author  firmly  believes  that  Weems's  Life  of  Washing- 
ton had  a  great  effect  upon  Lincoln  in  his  boyhood  days.  He 
has  gone  over  the  book  in  a  very  careful  way  and  has  selected 
a  few  extracts  that  he  thinks  left  a  lasting  impression  upon 
him.  The  figures,  following  the  extracts,  refer  to  the  pages 
from  which  they  are  taken. 

Washing  tan  Taught  Honesty 

"Never  did  the  wise  Ulysses  take  more  pains  with  his 
beloved  Telemachus,  than  did  Mr.  Washington  with  George, 
to  inspire  him  with  an  early  love  of  truth.  'Truth,  George,' 
said  he,  'is  the  loveliest  quality  of  youth.  .  .  .  Hard,  indeed, 
would  it  be  to  me  to  give  up  my  son,  whose  little  feet  are 
always  so  ready  to  run  about  with  me,  and  whose  fondly 
looking  eyes,  and  sweet  prattle  make  so  large  a  part  of 
my  happiness.  But  still  I  would  give  him  up,  rather  than  see 
him  a  common  liar.  .  .  .  George,  you  know  I  have  always 
told  you,  and  now  tell  you  again,  that,  whenever,  by  accident, 
you  do  anything  wrong,  which  must  often  be  the  case,  as  you 
are  but  a  poor  little  boy  yet,  without  experience  and  knowl- 
edge, you  must  never  tell  a  falsehood  to  conceal  it;  but  come 
bravely  up,  my  son,  like  a  little  man,  and  tell  me  of  it;  and, 
instead  of  beating  you,  George,  I  will  but  the  more  honour 
and  love  you  for  it,  my  dear.'"  (14  f.)  Here,  certainly, 
Abraham  Lincoln  received  a  simple  and  plain  lesson  on 
honesty. 

George  Washington  an  Umpire 

"A  very  aged  gentleman,  formerly  a  school  mate  of  his, 
has  assured  me  .  .  .  that  nothing  was  more  common,  when 
the  boys  were  in  high  dispute  about  a  question  of  fact,  than 
for  some  little  shaver  among  the  mimic  heroes,  to  call  out, 
'well  boys!  George  Washington  was  there;  George  Washing- 
ton was  there.  He  knows  all  about  it;  and  if  he  don't  say 
it  was  so,  then  we  will  give  it  up.' — 'Done,'  said  the  adverse 
party.  Then  away  they  would  trot  to  hunt  for  George.  Soon 
as  his  verdict  was  heard,  the  party  favored  would  begin  to 
crow,  and  then  all  hands  would  return  to  play  again."  (23). 
Like  Washington,  Lincoln  in  his  youth,  was  the  umpire  and 
referee  of  all  disputed  points  among  the  boys  of  his  neigh- 
borhood and  his  decisions  were  final  because  they  were  fair. 


222  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

The  Hand  of  God  in  History 

"Braddock  had  fallen — his  aids  and  officers,  to  a  man, 
killed  or  wounded — and  his  troops,  in  hopeless,  helpless  de- 
spair, flying  backwards  and  forwards  from  the  fire  of  the 
Indians,  like  flocks  of  crowding  sheep  from  the  presence  of 
their  butchers.  Washington  alone  remained  unhurt!  Horse 
after  horse  had  been  killed  under  him.  Showers  of  bullets 
had  touched  his  locks  or  pierced  his  regimentals.  But  still 
protected  by  heaven — still  supported  by  a  strength  not  his 
own,  he  had  continued  to  fly  from  quarter  to  quarter,  where 
his  presence  was  most  needed."  (44.)  In  this  extract  young 
Lincoln  could  read  the  hand  of  God  into  history  and  believe 
Washington  to  be  what  he  always  thought  he  was — a  super- 
man. 

Washington  Values  Character 

"It  is  worthy  of  remark,  because  it  happens  but  to  few, 
that  though  he  often  failed  of  success,  he  never  once  lost  the 
confidence  of  his  country.  Early  aware  of  the  importance  of 
character,  to  those  who  wish  to  be  useful,  he  omitted  no 
honest  act,  thought  no  pains,  no  sacrifice  of  ease  too  great, 
to  procure  and  preserve  it.  In  the  whole  of  that  stupidly- 
managed  war,  as  also  another  subsequent  war,  which  was 
not  much  better  conducted,  he  always  took  care  to  keep  the 
public  well  informed  as  to  the  part  which  he  had  acted,  or 
wished  to  act,  in  the  affair."  (57).  And  throughout  his 
career,  Abraham  Lincoln  never  failed  to  know  the  importance 
of  character  nor  did  he  fail  to  take  the  people  into  his  confi- 
dence. 

Washington  Wins  Over  His  Enemies 

"Such  was  the  effect  of  Washington's  policy;  the  divine 
policy  of  doing  good  for  evil.  It  melted  down  his  iron  enemies 
into  golden  friends.  It  caused  the  Hessian  soldiers  to  join 
with  the  American  farmers! — not  only  so,  but  to  write  such 
letters  to  their  countrymen,  that  they  were  constantly  break- 
ing loose  from  the  British  to  run  over  to  the  Americans — 
insomuch  that  in  a  little  time  the  British  would  hardly  trust 
a  Hessian  to  stand  sentinel!"  (96).  It  was  one  of  the  car- 
dinal policies  throughout  the  life  of  Lincoln  to  do  good  for 
evil — to  plant  a  flower  and  pluck  a  thorn. 


APPENDIX  223 

Washington's  Kindness  to  His  Enemies 
"Poor  Donop  (a  Hessian  colonel)  was  mortally  wounded, 
and  taken  prisoner.  The  attentions  of  the  American  officers, 
and  particularly  the  kind  condolence  of  the  godlike  Washing- 
ton, quite  overcame  him;  and  his  last  moments  were  steeped 
in  tears  of  regret,  for  having  left  his  native  land  to  fight  a 
distant  people  who  had  never  injured  him."  (101).  Kind- 
ness to  his  enemies  was  a  passion  in  the  breast  of  Abraham 
Lincoln ! 

Washington  on  the  Preservation  of  the  Union 
"In  his  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  de- 
livered in  September,  1796,  Washington  said:  The  unity  of 
government,  which  constitutes  you  one  people,  is  also  now 
dear  to  you.  It  is  justly  so;  for  it  is  a  main  pillar  in  the 
edifice  of  your  real  independence;  the  support  of  your  tran- 
quility at  home,  your  peace  abroad;  of  your  safety;  of  your 
property ;  of  that  very  liberty  which  you  so  highly  prize  .  .  . 
it  is  of  infinite  moment,  that  you  should  properly  estimate 
the  immense  value  of  your  national  union,  to  your  collective 
and  individual  happiness;  that  you  should  cherish  a  cordial, 
habitual,  and  immovable  attachment  to  it;  accustoming  your- 
selves to  think  and  speak  of  it  as  of  the  palladium  of  your 
political  safety  and  prosperity;  watching  for  its  preservation 
with  jealous  anxiety;  discountenancing  whatever  may  sug- 
gest even  a  suspicion  that  it  can  in  any  event  be  abandoned ; 
and  indignantly  frowning  upon  the  first  dawning  of  every 
attempt  to  alien  any  portion  of  our  country  from  the  rest, 
or  to  enfeeble  the  sacred  ties  which  now  link  together  the 
various  parts.'"  (160).  It  is  very  easy  to  see  that  from 
this  paragraph  young  Lincoln  could  receive  an  early  lesson 
on  the  value  of  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

Washington  on  Respect  for  the  Constitution 
"This  government,  the  offspring  of  your  own  choice,  .  .  . 
adopted  upon  full  investigation  and  mature  deliberation, 
completely  free  in  its  principles,  in  the  distribution  of  its 
powers,  uniting  security  with  energy,  and  containing  within 
itself  a  provision  for  its  own  amendment,  has  a  just  claim 
to  your  confidence  and  your  support.  Respect  for  its  author- 
ity, compliance  with  its  laws,  acquiescence  in  its  measures, 
are   duties    enjoined   by   the   fundamental   maxims   of   true 


224  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

liberty.  The  basis  of  our  political  system  is  the  right  of 
the  people  to  make  and  alter  their  constitutions  of  govern- 
ment. But  the  constitution  which  at  any  time  exists,  till 
changed  by  an  explicit  and  authentic  act  of  the  whole  people, 
is  sacredly  obligatory  upon  all."  (164).  From  this  para- 
graph Lincoln  could  easily  have  taken  the  material  that  he 
used  in  his  later  speeches  on  respect  for  our  Constitution. 
Washington  on  Religion  and  Morality 

"Of  all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which  lead  to  political 
prosperity,  religion  and  morality  are  indispensable  supports 
....  Let  it  be  simply  asked,  where  is  the  security  for  prop- 
erty, for  reputation,  for  life,  if  the  sense  of  religious  obliga- 
tions desert  the  oaths,  which  are  the  instruments  of  investi- 
gation in  the  courts  of  justice?  And  let  us  with  caution 
indulge  the  supposition,  that  morality  can  be  obtained  with- 
out religion.  .  .  .  'Tis  substantially  true,  that  virtue  or 
morality  is  a  necessary  spring  of  popular  government." 
(168  f.).  These  tenets  were  held  by  Abraham  Lincoln 
throughout  his  life. 

The  People  Looked  upon  Washington  as  an  Immortal 

"If  the  prayers  of  millions  could  have  prevailed,  Wash- 
ington would  have  been  immortal  on  earth.  And  if  fullness 
of  peace,  riches,  and  honours  could  have  rendered  that  im- 
mortality happy,  Washington  would  have  been  blessed  in- 
deed." (180).  Lincoln  in  his  later  life  said  that  he  had 
always  looked  upon  Washington  as  a  God-like  character. 
Washington  an  Obedient  Son 

"At  the  giddy  age  of  fourteen  ...  he  felt  a  strong  de- 
sire to  go  to  sea;  but,  very  opposite  to  his  wishes,  his  mother 
declared  that  she  could  not  bear  to  part  with  him.  .  .  .  Re- 
ligion whispered  'honour  thy  mother,  and  grieve  not  the  spirit 
of  her  who  bore  thee.'  Instantly  the  glorious  boy  sacrificed 
inclination  to  duty — dropt  all  thought  of  the  voyage — and 
gave  tears  of  joy  to  his  widowed  mother,  in  clasping  to  her 
bosom  a  dear  child  who  could  deny  himself  his  fondest  wishes 
to  make  her  happy.  .  .  .  Now  see  here,  young  reader;  and 
learn  that  He  who  prescribes  our  duty,  is  able  to  reward  it. 
Had  George  left  his  fond  mother  to  a  broken  heart,  and  gone 
off  to  sea,  'tis  next  to  certain  that  he  would  never  have  taken 
that  active  part  in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  which,  by 


APPENDIX  225 

securing  him  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  paved  the  way 
for  all  his  future  greatness."  (192  f.).  There  never  was 
a  more  obedient  son  than  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Washington  Industrious 
"Early  smitten  with  the  love  of  glory;  early  engaged  in 
the  noble  pursuit  of  knowledge,  of  independence,  and  of  use- 
fulness; he  had  no  eyes  to  see  bad  examples,  nor  ensnaring 
objects;  no  ears  to  hear  horrid  oaths,  nor  obscene  language; 
no  leisure  for  impure  passions  nor  criminal  amours.  Hence 
he  enjoyed  that  purity  of  soul,  which  is  rightly  called  its 
sunshine;  and  which  impressed  a  dignity  on  his  character, 
and  gave  him  a  beauty  and  loveliness  in  the  eyes  of  men, 
that  contributed  more  to  his  rise  in  the  world  than  young 
people  can  readily  conceive.  And  what  is  it  that  raises  a 
young  man  from  poverty  to  wealth,  from  obscurity  to  never- 
dying  fame?  What,  but  industry?  See,  Washington,  born 
of  humble  parents,  and  in  humble  circumstances — born  in  a 
narrow  nook  and  obscure  corner  of  the  British  plantations! 
Yet  lo!  What  great  things  wonder-working  industry  can 
bring  out  of  this  unpromising  Nazareth.  While  but  a  youth, 
he  manifested  such  a  noble  contempt  of  sloth,  such  a  manly 
spirit  to  be  always  learning  or  doing  something  useful  or 
clever,  that  he  was  the  praise  of  all  who  knew  him."  (229  f.). 
These  words  seem  to  be  written  to  describe  Lincoln. 

Lincoln's  Neighbors  in  Southern  Indiana 
In  Princeton,  county  seat  of  Gibson  County,  lived  Colonel 
James  Evans,  a  wool  carder,  to  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  took 
his  wool  once  a  year  to  have  it  carded.  Tradition  has  it  that 
Lincoln  met  and  fell  in  love  with  a  daughter  of  James  Evans 
but  she  pased  him  by  on  account  of  his  awkward  appearance. 
James  Evans  of  Princeton  had  a  brother,  General  Robert  M. 
Evans,  who  lived  at  New  Harmony  and  was  postmaster  there 
in  the  year  1827  and  for  some  time  later.  "General  Evans 
was  an  interesting  character  and  figured  much  in  the  news- 
papers in  Evansville,  New  Harmony,  and  Vincennes,  and  it 
is  altogether  probable  that  his  brother,  the  wool  carder  at 
Princeton,  had  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  for  so  eager  an 
inquirer  for  "news"  and  a  customer  as  Lincoln  is  shown  dur- 
ing that  period  to  have  been."2  The  influence  of  Robert  M. 
Evans  extended  over  the  entire  state  of  Indiana. 


226  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

General  Washington  Johnston  was  born  in  Virginia  in 
1776,  and  in  1793,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  settled  in  Vin- 
cennes,  Indiana.  He  entered  politics,  and,  although  living 
in  a  pro-slavery  neighborhood,  stood  opposed  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  slavery  into  Indiana.  As  a  member  of  the  territorial 
legislature,  Johnston  made  a  report  against  slavery  that 
prevented  the  introduction  of  the  institution  into  the  new 
state.  Johnston's  report  is  dated  October  18,  1808,  and  is 
published  in  full  in  the  Western  Sun  of  December  17,  1808, 
the  year  before  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  eight 
years  before  the  Lincolns  moved  to  Indiana.  In  1816  Indiana 
was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  free  state  but  it  was  the 
common  belief  that  the  Constitution  did  not  affect  the  pre- 
existent  slavery  in  the  territory.  At  least  after  statehood 
there  was  slavery  in  Indiana  and  four  years  after  the  Con- 
stitution went  into  effect  there  were  one  hundred  and  ninety 
slaves  in  the  state,  mostly  in  the  Southwestern  counties — 
Knox,  Gibson,  Posey,  Vanderburgh,  Owen,  Perry,  Pike,  Sulli- 
van, Spencer,  and  Warrick.  Slaves  were  bought  and  sold 
in  Indiana  after  statehood  and  the  Western  Sun  carried  ad- 
vertisements of  the  sale  of  slaves  under  the  dates  of  October 
12,  1816,  February  8,  1817,  September  6,  1817,  June  27,  1819, 
and  October  15,  1819.  With  slavery  existing  in  his  county 
and  at  the  time  when  Lincoln  lived  there,  we  may  feel  sure 
that  the  question  came  to  his  attention.  And  if  we  may 
infer  that  it  did,  we  may  in  reason  assume  that  young  Lin- 
coln knew  of  General  Washington  Johnston  and  his  fight 
against  the  institution  of  slavery.  Johnston  was  a  highly 
educated  man.  He  had  a  wide  reading  knowledge  of  history ; 
he  knew  the  classics.  He  was  fair  in  Latin  and  spoke  French 
fluently.  He  was  a  noted  orator  and  lawyer  and  practiced 
law  until  his  death  in  1833 — three  years  after  the  Lincoln's 
moved  from  Indiana.3 

There  was  a  Cassidy  settlement  in  Spencer  County  at 
this  period.  The  founder  of  this  settlement  distinguished 
himself  during  the  American  Revolution  at  Detroit,  where 
he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  by  the  British.  He  settled 
in  Pennsylvania  and  founded  a  town  which  he  named  for  his 
native  place  in  Ireland.  His  sons  were  surveyors.  They 
moved  to  Indiana,  and  thence  westward.     One  of  them  was 


APPENDIX  227 

the  sole  delegate  from  Arkansas  to  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Missouri  Territorial  Legislature,  when  Arkansas  was  a 
county  of  Missouri.  Mr.  T.  E.  Cassidy  of  New  Rochelle, 
New  York,  who  is  collecting  data  on  this  family,  when  asked 
whether  any  of  them  ever  met  Lincoln,  writes  laconically 
"Luke  Cassidy  played  marbles  with  Abe." 

Daniel  Grass  migrated  to  Spencer  County  about  1803  and 
settled  at  Hanging  Rock,  now  Rockport.  He  was  justice  of 
the  peace  in  1812.  The  next  year  he  became  associate  judge 
for  Warrick  County  which  then  contained  more  than  half 
of  what  is  now  Spencer  County.  He  represented  Warrick 
County  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  at  Corydon  and  the 
Counties  of  Warrick,  Perry,  and  Posey  as  Senator  in  the  first 
Indiana  State  Legislature.  He  was  elected  as  a  member  of 
the  State  Legislature  in  1819  and  again  in  1820  from  Spen- 
cer County.  In  1821  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Senate  from 
Spencer,  Perry,  Dubois,  and  part  of  Warrick.  He  was  re- 
elected for  every  session  and  served  until  1827."  Daniel 
Grass  was  a  man  of  culture  and  refinement  and  exerted  great 
influence  in  his  county. 

John  Morgan  removed  to  Spencer  County  from  Pennsyl- 
vania about  the  same  time  that  the  Lincolns  came  from  Ken- 
tucky. He  was  the  first  clerk  of  Spencer  County,  serving 
from  1818  to  1825.  Morgan  was  well  educated.  His  descen- 
dants retain  his  characteristics  and  are  noted  for  their  in- 
tellectual brilliancy  and  good  citizenship.  It  would,  indeed, 
be  quite  strange  if  Abraham  Lincoln  had  not  come  into  con- 
tact with  the  county  clerk  of  his  county,  especially  since 
Rockport,  the  county  seat,  was  only  about  fifteen  miles 
from  his  home  and  Lincoln  was  a  frequent  visitor  there. 

"Hon.  John  W.  Graham  .  .  .  was  born  March  11,  1791,  in 
Nelson  County,  Kentucky,  and  was  a  soldier  of  the  War  of 
1812.  July  12,  1817,  he  wedded  Mary  Duncan,  and  two  years 
later  he  and  wife  removed  to  Spencer  County,  Indiana,  Mr. 
Graham  joining  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  the  year 
following  his  settlement  here.  Of  an  uncommonly  well  bal- 
anced mind  and  of  excellent  judgment,  he  soon  became  one 
of  the  foremost  men  of  the  county,  and  his  views  and  opin- 
ions were  often  sought  far  and  near.  He  was  elected  to  the 
Lower  House  of  the  State  Legislature  from  Spencer  County, 


228  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

and  for  about  fourteen  years  was  an  Associate  Judge  of  this 
circuit.  He  was  never  known  to  have  done  a  dishonorable 
act,  and  his  intercourse  with  neighbors  and  acquaintances 
was  one  of  harmony  and  happiness.  .  .  .  An  earnest  worker 
in  the  cause  of  Christianity,  he  died  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal faith  February  20,  1855,  honored  and  respected  by  all 
who  knew  him."5  Mr.  Graham  was  judge  at  Rockport  during 
those  years  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  in  search  of 
legal  knowledge.  Young  Lincoln  frequently  attended  court 
at  Rockport  and  we  may  be  reasonably  sure  that  he  knew 
Judge  Graham.  Certainly  he  was  acquainted  with  Graham's 
work  as  judge. 

Hon.  James  Gentry,  Sr.,  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana 
in  1818,  locating  on  a  tract  of  land  of  one  thousand  acres 
and  afterwards  purchased  several  hundred  more.  Mr.  Gen- 
try was  noted  for  his  thrift,  energy,  and  industry.  His  in- 
terest in  his  neighbors  and  the  community  at  large  was  deep 
and  abiding.  He  had  eight  children:  Matthew;  Agnes,  who 
married  Benjamin  Romine;  Allen,  who  married  Anna  Robey; 
Hannah,  who  married  John  Romine;  Joseph;  Sarah,  who 
married  Madison  Hall;  Elizabeth,  who  married  Enoch  Lane; 
and  James.6  The  Gentry  family  was  one  of  the  leading  and 
influential  families  of  Spencer  County,  noted  for  its  strict 
honesty  and  uprightness  of  character.  Young  Lincoln  came 
into  close  contact  with  the  Gentry  boys  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  his  life  was  greatly  influenced  by  them.7 

Thomas  P.  Britton  and  brother  Alexander  removed  from 
Virginia  to  Spencer  County  about  1825.  They  were  both 
very  highly  cultured  and  educated  men.  The  latter  was  post- 
master at  Rockport  during  the  1820's  and  took  a  leading 
part  in  the  religious  and  social  life  of  the  town.  Thomas  P. 
Britton  spoke  several  languages  fluently  and  was  a  noted 
penman.  He  was  clerk  and  recorder  of  Spencer  County  for 
a  number  of  years.8 

John  Greathouse  was  born  in  Kentucky  in  1797.  When 
about  twenty-one  years  of  age  he  settled  in  Spencer  County 
where  he  worked  at  his  trade  as  tanner  and  farmer.  He 
had  quite  a  large  library  and  was  a  highly  educated  man. 
Are  we  not  to  believe  that  Lincoln  at  least  peeped  in  on  this 
library?8 


APPENDIX  229 

Dr.  Stephen  P.  Cissna  lived  at  Rockport  and  rode  for 
miles  about  administering  to  the  sick.  He  was  often  in  the 
Lincoln  neighborhood  and,  no  doubt,  in  the  Lincoln  home.10 

Thomas  Langdon,  a  lawyer  of  Spencer  County,  was  a 
brilliant  man  with  a  college  education.11 

John  Proctor,  who  graduated  from  Harvard  University 
in  1813,  settled  in  Spencer  County  in  1818  and  was  one  of  the 
most  cultured  of  its  citizens." 

John  McK.  Barnett  and  family  moved  from  Kentucky  to 
Indiana  and  settled  in  Ohio  township,  Spencer  County,  in 
1816.  Mr.  Barnett  was  a  Methodist  minister,  a  magistrate, 
and  an  associate  judge  of  the  probate  court.  He  was  well  and 
favorable  known  by  the  pioneers  of  Southern  Indiana.13 

The  Hackleman  family  moved  to  Spencer  County  in  1819 
and  in  December  of  that  year  Absolom  was  born.  He  "was 
one  of  the  foremost  men  in  the  county  during  his  day.  A 
man  of  sound  judgment  and  proper  discretion,  he  was  often 
called  upon  to  officiate  in  some  capacity  of  honor  and  trust, 
and  for  twelve  or  fifteen  years  was  a  commissioner  of  the 
county."  His  son,  Francis  M.  Hackleman,  became  quite  a 
noted  physician   in   Rockport  and   Spencer   County.14 

Samuel  Hammond  left  the  state  of  Maryland  with  his 
father  and  stepmother  and  settled  with  them  in  1811  near 
the  present  site  of  the  town  of  Grand  View.  Samuel  was  a 
progressive  tanner  and  opened  a  tanyard  in  Spencer  County 
which  he  operated  in  connection  with  his  farm  work  until 
1847  when  he  retired.15 

John  Naney  moved  to  Spencer  County  from  Kentucky 
about  1820.  He  settled  southwest  of  Rockport  and  soon  after- 
wards entered  two  hundred  six  acres  of  land.  Mr.  Naney 
was  a  prominent  man  of  his  neighborhood,  a  leading  Whig, 
and  held  various  township  and  county  offices.16 

John  W.  Lamar  was  born  in  Spencer  County,  December, 
1822,  the  eldest  son  of  John  and  Elizabeth  (Woolen)  Lamar. 
The  Lamars  were  cultured  and  refined  people.  We  have  had 
occasion  to  refer  to  them  and  their  relation  to  Lincoln  sev- 
eral times  throughout  this  book.17 

William  Richardson  removed  with  his  family  from  Ken- 
tucky to  Indiana  in  1817  and  settled  near  the  Lincoln  home- 
stead.    The  Richardsons  were  well  educated  and  highly  re- 


230  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

spected  citizens.  Elsewhere  we  told  the  story  how  Abraham 
Lincoln  protected  the  women  folk  all  night  long  against  the 
wild  animals  of  the  woods  during  their  first  night  in  Indiana 
and  how  the  young  Miss  Richardson  claimed  to  be  Lincoln's 
sweetheart.  We  have  also  told  the  story  of  Mr.  Richardson's 
relations  with  Lincoln.18 

George  Statelar  removed  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana  in 
1818  and  settled  in  Ohio  township,  where  his  son,  William, 
was  born,  March  1,  1820.  The  Statelars  have  always  been 
good  Christian  people  and  highly  respected  by  all  their  neigh- 
bors.19 

Isaac  Veatch  settled  in  Luce  township,  Spencer  County,  in 
1825,  moving  from  Meade  County,  Kentucky.  The  Veatch 
family  was  highly  educated  and  took  a  very  active  part  in 
politics.20 

Jeffy  Wright  was  born  in  Kentucky  and  migrated  with 
his  parents  to  Spencer  County  in  1808,  locating  about  two 
and  a  half  miles  below  the  present  site  of  Rockport.  He  was 
for  a  number  of  years  associate  judge  of  the  probate  court.21 

Jacob  Young  was  born  in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  in 
1801.  He  removed  to  Spencer  County  about  1813  and  lived 
with  his  brother-in-law,  Barney  Miller,  until  his  marriage. 
Mr.  Young  was  known  throughout  the  country  as  an  honest, 
upright  citizen.22 

Levi  Hale  and  family  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Spencer 
County  in  1819,  settling  in  Grass  Township.  The  Hales  were 
known  far  and  wide  as  honest,  upright  and  industrious  citi- 
zens.23 

Rev.  Allen  Brooner  was  born  in  Breckenridge  County, 
Kentucky,  October  22,  1813.  When  the  boy  was  one  year 
old  his  parents,  Peter  and  Nancy  (Rusher)  Brooner  moved 
to  Spencer  County,  locating  near  the  present  site  of  Lincoln 
City.  Here  Peter  Brooner  grew  to  manhood.  He  has  held 
acceptably  various  offices  of  trust.  Mrs.  Brooner  was  a 
daughter  of  Benjamin  and  Elizabeth  (Cooper)  Cox,  and  her 
grandfather  Cooper  was  General  Washington's  secretary  dur- 
ing the  Revolutionary  War.24 

David  Turnham  was  born  August  2,  1803,  near  Lebanon, 
Tennessee.  About  the  year  1818  he  came  to  Spencer  County 
and  settled  near  Grand  View.    He  became  one  of  the  foremost 


APPENDIX  231 

men  of  his  community,  honored  and  respected.  In  politics 
he  was  a  Whig  and  later  a  Republican.  We  have  referred  to 
him  time  and  again  in  his  relation  to  Lincoln  and  especially 
to  his  lending  Lincoln  The  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana.26 

Aquila  Huff  removed  with  his  family  from  Kentucky  in 
1815  and  settled  in  Spencer  County  in  what  is  now  Huff 
township,  which  was  named  for  him.  Mr.  Huff  reared  a 
large  family  of  children  who  have  reflected  credit  upon  their 
community.29 

The  Hart  family  were  pioneers,  prominent  in  Warrick 
and  Gibson  Counties.  David  Hart  was  presiding  judge  of 
the  fourth  judicial  circuit,  composed  of  Dubois,  Pike,  Gibson, 
Posey,  Vanderburgh,  Warrick,  Spencer,  Perry,  and  Craw- 
ford Counties,  in  1818  and  1819.  His  successor  was  Richard 
Daniel  of  Princeton  who  held  the  office  from  1819  to  1822. 
Daniel  was  succeeded  by  James  R.  E.  Goodlett,  who  continued 
as  judge  until  1831.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  at  least  knew  of  the  legal  work  of  these 
men. 

Amos  Clark  and  Charles  I.  Battell  were  prosecuting  at- 
torneys of  Spencer  County  during  the  young  manhood  of 
Lincoln  and  we  feel  that  he  knew  of  their  legal  activities. 

We  may  feel  assured  that  Lincoln  followed  the  work  of 
the  state  legislature  during  the  last  few  years  of  his  Indiana 
residence  and  that  this  placed  him  in  a  position  to  know 
of  the  activities  of  Isaac  Veatch,  Samuel  Frisby,  Richard 
Polk,  Daniel  Grass,  and  John  Daniel  who  represented  his 
county  either  in  the  House  of  Representatives  or  in  the 
Senate. 

Joseph  Lane  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  men  of  South- 
ern Indiana,  taking  a  very  active  part  in  politics.  Later 
he  was  appointed  Governor  of  Oregon  and  became  United 
States  Senator  from  that  state.  In  1860  he  was  a  candi- 
date for  Vice-President  on  the  Breckenridge  ticket  against 
Lincoln  and  Hamlin.  Lincoln  had  ample  opportunities  to 
know  Lane  in  Indiana. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  Lincoln  knew  Elisha  Harrison,  a 
second  cousin  of  William  Henry  Harrison.  Elisha  Harrison 
was  a  very  influential  man  in  Southern  Indiana  from  1816 
to  1825  and  took  an  active  part  in  politics. 


232  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

Another  great  character  of  Southern  Indiana  was  Judge 
Lemuel  Quincy  De  Bruler  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  knew  per- 
sonally. Mr.  De  Bruler  was  a  noted  lawyer  and  judge,  hon- 
ored and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him.27 

Levi  Iglehart,  Sr.,  moved  to  Warrick  County  in  1823.  He 
located  about  eight  miles  from  Boonville,  and  was  twenty 
miles  distant  from  the  Lincoln  home.  He  was  elected  judge 
of  the  circuit  court  and  held  court  in  Boonville  where  the 
famous  lawyers,  Pitcher  and  Breckenridge,  pleaded  cases  be- 
fore him.  He  was  no  doubt  judge  at  the  time  Lincoln  walked 
to  Boonville  to  attend  court.28 

Samuel  Scott,  representative  of  Warrick  County  in  the 
legislature,  was  a  very  able  man,  highly  educated  and  public 
spirited. 

Besides  the  above  list  of  highly  educated  men  most  of 
whom  Lincoln  knew  and  the  rest  of  whom  we  feel  safe  in 
saying  that  he  knew,  reasoning  from  the  law  of  probabilities, 
there  are  many  others  who  came  into  his  life  and  helped  to 
mould  it.  The  list  is  so  long  that  we  can  merely  mention 
a  few  of  their  names.  These  men  were  all  highly  cultured 
and  educated — real  pioneer  aristocrats:  Everton  Kennerly, 
Richard  Carlisle,  the  Pricketts,  Fairchilds,  Garretts,  Med- 
calfs,  Snyders,  Bunners,  Berrys,  Rays,  Browns,  Logsdons, 
Montgomerys,  Boyds,  Mattinglys,  De  Weeses,  Whittinghills, 
Crooks,  Kellams,  Cottons,  Grigsbys,  Roberts,  Taylors,  Car- 
ters, Lindseys,  Wilkinsons,  Huffmans,  Dorseys,  Lucas,  Park- 
ers, Meeks,  Gwaltneys,  and  Castleberrys. 

The  above,  then,  is  a  partial  list  of  men,  Lincoln's  neigh- 
bors, who  helped  to  make  him  what  he  was.  In  this  list  are 
public  officials,  ministers,  lawyers,  judges,  doctors,  teachers, 
and  business  men.  Included  are  county,  state  and  national 
office-holders,  college  and  university  graduates,  and  linguists 
of  national  fame. 

But  the  list  is  not  complete.  Lincoln  had  other  neighbors 
besides  those  of  Spencer  County.  We  doubt  not  that  he 
came  into  contact  with  many  educated  men  in  all  of  the  sur- 
rounding counties.  We  add  the  names  of  a  few  of  his  neigh- 
bors of  Gibson  County: 

In  1800  David  Robb  moved  to  what  is  now  Gibson  County 
and  settled  on  lands  south  of  Hazelton;  he  reared  a  large 


APPENDIX  233 

family,  entered  politics,  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  and 
helped  to  frame  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Indiana. 

In  1803  came  the  Hargroves,  the  Stewarts,  the  Milburns, 
and  the  Heinmans.  These  good  people  took  a  very  active 
part  in  all  social  and  political  questions  and  were  all  highly 
respected  and  honored  citizens. 

In  1804  the  Archer  family  moved  to  Gibson  County,  fol- 
lowed the  next  year  by  the  Johnsons,  the  Neeleys,  the  Evans, 
the  Montgomerys,  and  the  McClures.  All  of  these  people 
were  highly  respected  as  are  their  descendants  today. 

In  1808  came  the  Wilkinsons,  the  Stricklands,  and  the 
Smiths  against  whom  naught  has  been  said.  Better  people 
never  lived. 

In  1811  Joshua  Embree  moved  to  Gibson  County  from 
Kentucky.  Two  years  later  he  died.  His  son,  Elisha,  be- 
came a  very  prominent  man.  He  located  in  Princeton,  prac- 
ticed law  there,  was  elected  to  the  state  legislature,  was  cir- 
cuit judge  for  two  years,  and  was  elected  to  Congress,  at  the 
same  time  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  member  of  that  body 
from  the  State  of  Illinois. 

William  Prince,  for  whom  the  city  of  Princeton  was 
named,  was  a  highly  respected  and  honored  citizen.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  in  1824  he  represented  his  district  in  Con- 
gress. His  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  Samuel  Hall,  who 
was  a  circuit  judge,  and  at  one  time  Lieutenant-governor  of 
Indiana.  No  state  can  boast  of  better  people  than  the 
Princes  and  the  Halls. 

Then  there  were  the  Brownlees,  the  Jeraulds,  the  Cock- 
rums,  and  the  Bensons,  all  moving  to  Gibson  County  about 
the  time  the  Lincolns  moved  to  Spencer  County.  These  peo- 
ple were  all  of  the  highest  type,  cultured  and  refined.29 

Men  and  Women  of  the  Owenite  Settlement 

Robert  Dale  Owen  was  a  great  social  reformer.  He  was 
born  in  Scotland  in  1801  and  came  to  America  with  his 
father.  In  1827  he  established  at  New  York  in  conjunction 
with  Fanny  Wright,  The  Free  Inquirer,  a  Socialist  publica- 
tion. In  1832  he  returned  to  Indiana  and  three  years  later 
was  elected  on  the  Democratic  ticket  as  a  member  of  the 
state  legislature.     He  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1843  and 


234  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

again  in  1845.  He  took  a  leading  part  in  the  founding  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institute,  1845,  and  helped  to  remodel  the 
Indiana  Constitution,  1850.  He  was  a  strong  abolitionist 
and  a  firm  believer  in  spiritualism,  having  written  in  his 
later  days  several  interesting  books  on  this  subject. 

Thomas  Say,  a  great  naturalist,  was  born  in  Philadelphia 
in  1787.  He  became,  in  1812,  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  and  was  its  first  curator.  In 
1818  he  was  a  member  of  a  scientific  expedition  to  the  coasts 
of  Georgia  and  Florida  and  the  next  year  was  zoologist  to 
Major  Long's  expedition  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Say  col- 
lected many  kinds  of  insects  and  mollusks  and  his  descrip- 
tion of  them  is  the  beginning  of  entomology  and  conchology  in 
America.  In  1825  he  joined  Robert  Owen  in  his  colony  at 
New  Harmony  where  he  died  in  1834.  During  the  years 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  craving  an  education,  this  great  na- 
turalist was  working  in  his  neighborhood. 

Gerard  Troost,  a  great  American  geologist,  was  born  in 
Holland  in  1776.  He  was  educated  in  the  University  of  Ley- 
den.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1810  and  settled  in 
Philadelphia.  There  he  became  a  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Natural  History  and  was  elected  its  first  president,  which 
office  he  held  until  1817.  He  became  with  Thomas  Say,  in 
1825,  a  member  of  the  Owenite  settlement  at  New  Harmony. 
The  mineral  collections  of  Troost  were  the  largest  in  the 
United  States. 

William  Maclure,  "father  of  American  geology,"  was  born 
in  Scotland,  1763.  He  acquired  a  fortune  in  business  in 
London.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1796,  and  in  1803 
served  as  one  of  the  commissioners  to  settle  the  French  spol- 
iation claims  of  American  citizens.  On  his  return  to  Amer- 
ica he  began  a  geological  survey  of  the  entire  country  during 
which  he  visited  nearly  every  part  of  the  country  and  crossed 
the  Allegheny  mountains  fifty  times.  He  became  a  member 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  soon  after  it  was  or- 
ganized in  1812  and  was  its  president  from  1817  until  his 
death  in  1840.  He  gave  his  library  of  five  thousand  volumes 
to  the  society  and  enriched  its  museum  with  his  specimens, 
making  it  unequalled  in  the  United  States.  He  joined  the 
Owenite  movement  along  with  Say  and  Troost  and  for  three 


APPENDIX  235 

years  put  his  talent  and  his  money  into  that  scheme  to 
make  possible  a  new  social  order.  He  was  especially  inter- 
ested in  the  education  of  the  lower  classes,  mentally,  morally, 
and  physically. 

Charles  Alexander  Lesueur  was  born  in  France  in  1778. 
In  1800  he  accompanied  a  government  expedition  sent  out 
by  the  Institute  of  France  to  make  scientific  observations  in 
the  southern  parts  of  the  eastern  hemisphere.  The  expedi- 
tion visited  Mauritius,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope.  After  four  years'  time  the  expedition  re- 
turned with  a  collection  of  more  than  100,000  zoological  speci- 
mens, including  more  than  2,500  new  species.  In  1815  Le- 
sueur accompanied  William  Maclure  to  the  United  States  by 
way  of  the  West  Indies  where  these  scientists  carried  on 
their  researches.  In  1816  Maclure  and  Lesueur  settled  in 
Philadelphia  where  the  latter  taught  drawing  and  painting. 
There  Lesueur  became  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophi- 
cal Society  and  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  In  1826 
he  came  with  Maclure  on  "The  Philanthropist"  to  New  Har- 
mony, where  he  continued  his  research  work.  He  remained 
in  New  Harmony  until  1837.  Lesueur  takes  high  rank  as 
a  zoologist. 

Fanny  Wright  was  born  in  Scotland  in  1795.  She  traveled 
in  the  United  States,  1818-1820,  returning  to  England  where 
she  wrote  articles  of  her  views  on  American  life.  She  re- 
turned to  this  country  in  1825.  She  purchased  two  thou- 
sand four  hundred  acres  of  land  in  Tennessee  where  she  es- 
tablished a  colony  of  emancipated  slaves,  hoping  to  be  able 
to  elevate  their  social  condition.  Her  plan  conflicted  with 
the  laws  of  Tennessee  and  the  emancipated  negroes  were 
sent  to  Haiti.  She  became  associated  with  Eobert  Owen  and 
edited  the  New  Harmony  Gazette.  Fanny  Wright  fearlessly 
attacked  slavery  and  other  social  institutions,  raising  her 
voice  against  the  wrongs  and  injustice  of  the  old  social  order. 
It  would,  indeed,  be  strange  if  young  Abraham  Lincoln  did 
not  know  of  the  teachings  of  Fanny  Wright  when  she  was  so 
close  to  him  and  when  the  Gazette  was  circulated  far  and 
wide,  advertising  to  the  people  of  Indiana  the  purpose  of 
the  Owenite  Settlement.  This  remarkable  woman  fought  for 
women's  rights  by  speech  and  through  the  press,  and  in  a 


236  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

short  time  after  Lincoln  moved  to  Illinois  we  find  him  ad- 
vocating woman  suffrage.  It  would  not  require  a  great 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  believe  that  Lincoln  got  his 
ideals,  in  some  measure,  from  Fanny  Wright. 

Besides  the  above  eminent  people  there  were  in  the  Owen- 
ite  Settlement,  William  Phiquepal  d'Arusmont  and  Mme. 
Marie  Duclos  Fretageot,  Pestalozzian  teachers;  Dr.  Samuel 
Chase,  chemist;  Oliver  Evans,  Jr.,  who  made  the  first  cast 
plows  in  the  state  of  Indiana;  John  Beal,  cabinet  maker; 
Cornelius  Tiebout,  printer  and  engraver,  and  his  daughter, 
Caroline,  who  helped  Mrs.  Say  paint  the  plates  for  Say's 
Conchology;  John  Speakman,  scientist;  Miss  Lucy  Way  Sis- 
taire  (Mrs.  Thomas  Say),  artist;  and  Belthazar  Obernasser, 
Swiss  artist. 


REFERENCES 

Chapter  I 

1.  Durrett,  Muster  Roll,  Chronological  Files,  1795. 

2.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Haycaft  &  Berry  Account  Book. 

3.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Lincoln's  Parentage  and  Childhood, 
p.  43. 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  Tax  Book,  1799,  Washington  County  Section,  Kentucky 
Historical  Society. 

6.  Tax  Book,  1800,  Washington  County  Court. 

7.  Tax  Book,  1801,  Washington  County  Court. 

8.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Lincoln's  Parentage  and  Childhood, 
p.  46. 

9.  Tax  Book,  1803,  Hardin  County  Section,  Kentucky  His- 
torical Society. 

10.  Order  Book,  Quarter  Session,  October  19,  1803,  Hardin 
Circuit  Court. 

11.  Public  Claims,  Bundle  1803,  Hardin  County  Court. 

12.  Order  Book,   Quarter   Session,  April  19,  1804,   Hardin 
Circuit  Court. 

13.  Road    Petitions,    Bundle    Before    1805,    Hardin    County 
Court. 

14.  Order  Book  B,  17,  Hardin  County  Court. 

15.  Tax  List,  1807,  Hardin  County  Section,  Kentucky  His- 
torical Society. 

16.  Haycraft,  History  of  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  p.  74. 

17.  Judgments  and  Other  Papers,  Bundle  1811-1812,  Hardin 
County  Court. 

18.  Judgments  and  Other  Papers,  Bundle  1808-1809,  Hardin 
County  Court. 

19.  Ibid. 

20.  Order  Book  C,  119  and  194,  Hardin  Circuit  Court. 

21.  Tax  Book,  1808,  Hardin  County  Section,  Kentucky  His- 
torical Society. 

22.  Equity  Bundle,  24,  Hardin  Circuit  Court. 

23.  Order  Book  C,  144,  Hardin  County  Court. 

24.  Marriage  Bonds,  1816,  Hardin  County  Court. 

25.  Order  Book  C,  311,  Hardin  County  Court. 

237 


238  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

26.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Lincoln's  Parentage  and  Childhood, 
p.  56. 

27.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  pp. 
142  f. 

28.  Marriage  Certificates  and  Permits,  1801,  Washington 
County  Court. 

29.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Haycraft  Promissory  Notes,  1803. 

30.  Road  Petitions,  Bundle  Before  1805,  Hardin  County 
Court. 

31.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Lincoln's  Parentage  and  Childhood, 
p.  50. 

32.  Ibid.,  p.  11. 

33.  Wilson,  Woodrow,  Division  and  Reunion,  p.  216. 

34.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  8. 

35.  Ibid.,  p.  9. 

36.  Ibid.,  p.  10. 

37.  Ibid.,  p.  11. 

38.  Carver,  Thomas  Nixon,  Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
pp.  182  f. 

39.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  p.  45. 

Chapter  II 

1.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  42. 

2.  Marriage  Register  A,  Mercer  County  Court. 

3.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  Lincoln's  Parentage  and  Childhood, 
pp.  36  f. 

4.  Ibid.,  p.  36. 

5.  Barton,  William  E.,   The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I, 
63  f. 

6.  Herndon,  William  H.,  Life  of  Lincoln,  I,  13  f. 

7.  Atkinson,     Eleanor,     "Lincoln's     Boyhood,"     American 
Magazine,  February,  1908,  p.  361. 

8.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  13. 

9.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Man  of  God,  p. 
322. 

10.  Irelan,  John  Robert,  The  Republic,  pp.  26  f;  Lamon, 
Ward  H.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  from  his  Birth 
to  his  Inauguration  as  President,  p.  32;  Leland,  Charles 
Godfrey,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Abolition  of  Slavery 


REFERENCES  239 

in  the  United  States,  p.  20;  Jones,  Major  Evan  Rowland, 
Lincoln,  Stanton,  and  Grant,  p.  4;  Hapgood,  Norman, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Man  of  the  People,  p.  8;  Lewis, 
E.  I.,  in  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  February  12,  1899. 

11.  Danville,  Illinois,  News,  February  12,  1904. 

12.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  p.  27. 

13.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Man  of  God,  p.  14. 

14.  Bruno,  Frank  J.,  in  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch,  February 
6,  1926. 

Chapter  III 

1.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  16. 

2.  Cathey,  James  H.,  The  Genesis  of  Lincoln,  pp.  81  f. 

3.  Boyd,  Lucinda  Joan,  The  Sorrows  of  Nancy,  pp.  6  f. 

Chapter  IV 

1.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  102. 

2.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I, 
100. 

3.  The  Autobiography  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Francis  D. 
Tandy  Company,  p.  7. 

4.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  pp.  14  f. 

5.  Ibid.,  pp.  11  f. 

6.  Barrett,  Joseph  H.,  Abaham  Lincoln  and  His  Presidency, 
I,  16  ff. 

7.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I,  21. 

8.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  p.  20. 

9.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  pp. 
17  f. 

10.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,   The  Life   of  Abraham  Lincoln,  pp. 
31  f. 

11.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  pp.  22  f. 

Chapter  V 

1.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Inaugural  Address,"  Proceedings  of 
the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  Bulletin 
No.  16,  October,  1922,  p.  93. 

2.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  pp.  41  f. 

o.     Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  pp.  13  f. 


240  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

4.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
1847-1865,  pp.  13  f. 

5.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  31. 

Chapter  VI 

1.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  25. 

2.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  17. 

3.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  Boy  Scouts'  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  38. 

4.  The  Autobiography  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Francis  D. 
Tandy  Company,  pp.  33  f. 

5.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  pp.  22  f. 

6.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
p.  78. 

Chapter  VII 

1.  Armstrong,  Ida  D.,  "The  Lincolns  in  Spencer  County," 
Proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Historical  Society,  Bul- 
letin No.  18,  p.  56. 

2.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  45. 

3.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  Boy  Scouts'  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  38  f. 

4.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  p.  180. 

5.  Nicolay,  John,  A  Short  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
p.  13. 

6.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  33. 

7.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  44. 

8.  Ibid.,  p.  69. 

9.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  p.  8. 

10.  Atkinson,     Eleanor,     "Lincoln's     Boyhood,"     American 
Magazine,  February,  1908,  p.  365. 

11.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  pp. 
134  f. 

12.  Ibid.,  p.  264. 

13.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  pp.  20  f. 

14.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  p.  29. 


REFERENCES  241 

15.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  4,  December,  1917,  p. 
344. 

16.  Ibid.,  p.  341. 

17.  Dodge,  Daniel  Kilham,  Abraham  Lincoln — Master  of 
Words,  p.  174. 

18.  Lambn,  Ward  H.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  67. 

19.  Gulliver,  John  Putnam  in  The  Independent,  September 
1,  1864. 

20.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  pp.  150  f. 

21.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  pp. 
298  f. 

Chapter  VIII 

1.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  22. 

2.  Ibid.,  p.  23. 

3.  Barton,  William  E.,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  His  Books, 
p.  8. 

4.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  23. 

5.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  pp.  23  ff. 

6.  Ibid.,  p.  25. 

7.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  p.  98. 

8.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p.  33. 

9.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  4,  December,  1917,  p.  325. 

10.  Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XXII,  No.  2,  June, 
1926,  p.  220. 

11.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p. 
141. 

12.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  107. 

13.  Ibid.,  p.  129. 

14.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  p.  145. 

15.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  pp.  25  f. 

16.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  pp. 
265  f. 

17.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  pp.  15  f. 


242  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

18.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  pp. 
46  f. 

19.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  139. 

20.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  p.  16. 

21.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  p.  45. 

22.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Methodism  in  Southern  Indiana," 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  2,  June, 
1921,  p.  145. 

Chapter  IX 

1.  Ehrmann,  Bess  V.,  "The  Lincoln  Inquiry,"  Indiana 
Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XXI,  No.  1,  March,  1925,  pp. 
3  f. 

2.  Esary,  Logan,  "The  Pioneer  Aristocracy,"  Indiana 
Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  3,  September,  1917, 
pp.  276  f. 

3.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Methodism  in  Southern  Indiana," 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  2,  June, 
1921,  footnote  p.  147. 

4.  Hanby,  Mrs.  Alice  L.  Harper,  "The  Lincoln  Inquiry — 
John  Pitcher,"  Proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana 
Historical  Society,  Bulletin  No.  16,  1922,  pp.  54  ff. 

5.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  130. 

6.  Cox,  John  E.,  "Judge  John  Pitcher,"  Proceedings  of  the 
Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  Bulletin  No. 
18,  1923,  pp.  93  f. 

7.  Raleigh,  Eldora  Minor,  "John  A.  Breckenridge,"  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society, 
Bulletin  No.  16,  pp.  62  f. 

8.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  pp.  160  f. 

9.  Barker,  William  L.,  "Ratliff  Boone,"  Proceedings  of  the 
Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  Bulletin  No. 
16,  p.  73. 

10.  Ibid.,  p.  77. 

11.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  17. 

12.  Thwaites,  R.  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  X,  19  ff. 

13.  Ibid.,  XI,  234. 


REFERENCES  243 

14.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Life  and  Times  of  John  Shra- 
der,"  Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  1, 
March,  1921,  pp.  36  f. 

15.  Ibid.,  pp.  39  f. 

16.  Thwaites,  R.  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  XI,  240. 

17.  Scott,  The  Indiana  Gazateer,  p.  103. 

18.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Coming  of  the  English  to  In- 
diana in  1817  and  their  Hoosier  Neighbors,"  Indiana 
Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XV,  No.  2,  June,  1919,  p.  96. 

19.  Ibid.,  p.  98. 
20      Ibid.,  p.  103. 

21.  Ibid.,  p.  107. 

22.  Ibid.,  pp.  109  f. 

23.  Ibid.,  pp.  128  f. 

24.  Edinburgh  Review,  XXX,  136. 

25.  Lindley,  Harlow,  Indiana  Seen  by  Early  Travelers,  pp. 
473  ff. 

26.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Historical  Society  Publications, 
Vol.  VIII,  No.  3,  1925,  p.  168. 

27.  Elliott,  History  of  Vanderburgh  County,  p.  93;  p.  96. 

28.  Fortune,  Warrick  County  Prominent  People,  p.  36. 

29.  Evansville  Gazette,  June  18,  1825. 

30.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Historical  Society  Publica- 
tions, Vol.  VIII,  No.  3,  1925,  p.  153. 

31.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  pp.  29  ff. 

Chapter  X 

1.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  pp.  67  f. 

2.  Ibid.,  p.  68. 

3.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  49. 

4.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  62. 

5.  Ibid.,  p.  63. 

6.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  48. 

7.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Corespondence  between  Lincoln  His- 
torians and  this  Society,"  Indiana  Historical  Commis- 
sion, Bulletin  No.  18,  October,  1923,  pp.  83  ff. 

8.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I,  26  f. 


244  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

9.     Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  56. 
10.     Lamon,  Ward  H.,   The  Life   of  Abraham  Lincoln,  pp. 
60  f. 

Chapter  XI 

1.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p. 
XVIII. 

2.  Ibid.,  p.  12. 

3.  Jackson,  S.  Trevena,  Lincoln's  Use  of  the  Bible,  pp.  7  f. 

4.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p.  19. 

5.  Jackson,  S.  Trevena,  Lincoln's  Use  of  the  Bible,  p.  35. 

6.  Wod,  Leonard,  in  John  Wesley  Hill's  Abraham  Lincoln 
—Man  of  God,  p.  VIII. 

7.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  pp. 
238  f. 

8.  Ibid.,  p.  50. 

9.  Armstrong,  Ida  D.,  "The  Lincolns  in  Spencer  County, 
Proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  So- 
ciety, Bulletin  No.  18,  October,  1923,  p.  62. 

10.     Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  144. 

Chapter  XII 

1.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  pp.  18  f. 

2.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  p.  39. 

3.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  pp. 
50  f. 

4.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  232. 

5.  Ibid.,  p.  324. 

6.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p.  22. 

7.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1916,  p.  20. 

Chapter  XIII 

1.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  56. 

2.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  p.  9. 

3.  Nicolay,  John,  A  Short  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
pp.  14  f. 


REFERENCES  245 

4.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,   The  Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
p.  40. 

5.  Nicolay,  John,  A   Short  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
pp.  15  f. 

6.  Lamon,  Ward  Hill,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  511. 

7.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  pp.  26  f. 

8.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  pp.  154  f. 

9.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  pp.  71  f. 

10.  Ibid.,  pp.  34  f. 

11.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  27. 

12.  Nicolay,  John,  A   Short  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
pp.  17  f. 

13.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  pp.  22  f. 

14.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  32. 

15.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  p.  9. 

16.  Ibid.,  pp.  83  f. 

17.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  pp.  38  f. 

18.  Ibid.,  p.  24. 

Chapter  XIV 

1.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  25. 

2.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  38. 

3.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  p.  182. 

4.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  pp.  35  f. 

5.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  25. 

6.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  46. 

7.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  pp.  53  f. 

8.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  59. 

9.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  Abraham  Lincoln,  A  History,  I,  36. 


246  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

10.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  4,  December,  1917,  p.  314. 

11.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  43. 

12.  Ibid.,  p.  45. 

13.  Ibid.,  p.  48. 

14.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  128. 

15.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  52. 

16.  Carpenter,  Frank  B.,  Six  Months  at  the  White  House, 
p.  146. 

17.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  192. 

18.  Ibid.,  p.  262. 

19.  Onstott,  T.  G.,  Lincoln  and  Salem,  p.  73. 

20.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Lin- 
coln, p.  83. 

21.  Hobson,  J.  T.,  Footprints  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  54. 

22.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  194. 

23.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln, 
p.  130. 

24.  Ibid.,  p.  85. 

25.  Hobson,  J.  T.,  Footprints  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  51. 

26.  Coffin,  Charles  Carleton,  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  35. 

27.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Herndon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
of  a  Great  Life,  I,  45  f. 

28.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  p.  245. 

29.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  57. 

30.  Armstrong,  Ida  D.,  "The  Lincolns  in  Spencer  County," 
Proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  So- 
ciety, Bulletin  No.  18,  October,  1923,  p.  59. 

31.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  p.  30. 

32.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p.  59. 

33.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  4,  December,  1917,  pp. 
336  f. 

34.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  p.  198. 

35.  Coffin,  Charles  Carleton,  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  26. 

36.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I,  44. 


REFERENCES  247 

37.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  "Lincoln's  Boyhood,"  American 
Magazine,  February,  1908,  p.  369. 

Chapter  XV 

1.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Correspondence  between  Lincoln  His- 
torians and  this  Society,"  Proceedings  of  the  Southwest- 
ern Indiana  Historical  Society,  Bulletin  No.  18,  pp.  80  f. 

2.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918,  pp.  29  f. 

3.  Embree,  Lucius  C,  "Morris  Birbeck's  Estimate  of  the 
People  of  Princeton  in  1817,"  Indiana  Magazine  of  His- 
tory, Vol.  XXI,  No.  4,  December,  1925,  p.  290. 

4.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Methodism  in  Southern  Indiana," 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  2,  June, 
1921,  footnote,  pp.  145  f. 

5.  Kiper,  Roscoe,  "Lincoln's  Environment  in  Indiana,"  In- 
diana Magazine  of  History,  Extra  Number,  December, 
1925,  p.  95. 

6.  Morgan,  James,  Abraham  Lincoln — The  Boy  and  the 
Man,  pp.  17  ff. 

7.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p.  60. 

8.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I,  46  f. 

9.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  p. 
116. 

10.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  pp. 
234  f. 

11.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
1847-1865,  p.  180. 

12.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  pp. 
296  ff. 

13.  Chittenden,  L.  E.,  Recollections,  pp.  448  ff. 

14.  Lamon,  Ward  H.,  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
1847-1865,  pp.  243  f. 

15.  Warren,  Louis  A.,  "The  Mystery  of  Lincoln's  Melan- 
choly," Indiana  History  Bulletin,  Extra  Number,  Decem- 
ber, 1925,  pp.  53  ff. 

16.  Turner,  F.  G.,  "Contributions  of  the  West  to  American 
Democracy,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  XCI,  89. 


248  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

17.  Turner,  F.  G.,  "Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  Amer- 
ican History/'  American  History  Association,  1893,  p. 
223,  note. 

18.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Methodism  in  Southern  Indiana," 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  2,  June, 
1921,  p.  149. 

Chapter  XVI 

1.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I,  48. 

2.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  pp.  165  f. 

3.  Report  of  the  Lincoln  Highway  Commission  to  Gover- 
nor Ralston,  December,  1916. 

4.  Weik,  Jesse,  The  Real  Lincoln,  A  Portrait,  pp.  48  f. 

5.  Nicolay,  John,  A  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  20. 

6.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I, 
139. 

7.  Hobson,  J.  T.,  Footprints  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  33. 

Appendix 

1.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I, 
17  f. 

2.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Coming  of  the  English  to  In- 
diana in  1817  and  their  Hoosier  Neighbors,"  Indiana 
Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XV,  No.  2,  June,  1919. 

3.  Wilson,  George  R.,  "General  Washington  Johnston,"  In- 
diana Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XX,  No.  2,  June,  1924, 
p.  132. 

4.  Wright,  Laura  Mercy,  "Daniel  Grass,"  Indiana  History 
Bulletin,  Extra  Number,  1925,  pp.  7  ff. 

5.  Brant  and  Goodspeed,  History  of  Warrick,  Spencer,  and 
Perry  Counties,  p.  455. 

6.  Ibid.,  p.  452. 

7.  Ehrmann,  Mrs.  Bess,  "Lincoln's  Neighbors,"  a  paper 
read  before  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society 
at  Princeton,  Indiana,  November  17,  1925. 

8.  Ibid. 

9.  Ibid. 

10.  Ibid. 

11.  Ibid. 

12.  Ibid. 


REFERENCES  249 

13.  Brant  and  Goodspeed,  History  of  Warrick,  Spencer,  and 
Perry  Counties,  p.  441. 

14.  Ibid.,  p.  457. 

15.  Ibid.,  p.  457. 

16.  Ibid.,  p.  475. 

17.  Ibid.,  pp.  521  f. 

18.  Ibid.,  pp.  482  f. 

19.  Ibid.,  p.  486. 

20.  Ibid.,  p.  489. 

21.  Ibid.,  pp.  493  f. 

22.  Ibid.,  p.  495. 

23.  Ibid.,  p.  532. 

24.  Ibid.,  p.  557. 

25.  Ibid.,  p.  562. 

26.  Ibid.,  p.  573. 

27.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  De  Bruler  Family  as  Typical 
Pioneers,"  Indiana  Historical  Society  Publications,  Vol. 
VIII,  No.  3,  1925,  pp.  176  ff. 

28.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Life  and  Times  of  John  Shra- 
der,"  Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  1, 
March,  1921,  p.  41. 

29.  Embree,  Lucius  C,  "Morris  Birbeck's  Estimate  of  the 
People  of  Princeton  in  1817,"  Indiana  Magazine  of  His- 
tory, Vol.  XXI,  No.  4,  December,  1925,  pp.  296  ff. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1.  Armstrong,  Ida  D.,  "The  Lincolns  in  Spencer  County," 
Proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  So- 
ciety, Bulletin  No.  18,  October,  1923. 

2.  Arnold,  Isaac  N.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  A.  C. 
McClure  and  Co.,  Chicago,  1896. 

3.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  "Lincoln's  Alma  Mater,"  Harper's, 
May,  1913. 

4.  Atkinson,  Eleanor,  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  The  Mc- 
Clure Company,  New  York,  1908. 

5.  Autobiography  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Francis  D.  Tandy 
Co.,  New  York,  1905. 

6.  Barker,  William  L.,  "Ratliff  Boone,"  Proceedings  of  the 
Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  Bulletin  No. 
16,  1922. 

7.  Barrett,  Joseph  H.,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  His  Presi- 
dency, The  Robert  Clarke  Company,  Cincinnati,  1904. 

8.  Barrett,  Joseph  H.,  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Moore, 
Wilstach  and  Baldwin,  Cincinnati,  1865. 

9.  Barton,  William  E.,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  His  Books, 
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10.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  The 
Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  Indianapolis,  1925. 

11.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Paternity  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
George  H.  Doran  Co.,  New  York,  1920. 

12.  Barton,  William  E.,  The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
George  H.  Doran  Company,  New  York,  1920. 

13.  Boyd,  Lucinda  Joan,  The  Sorrows  of  Nancy. 

14.  Brant  and  Goodspeed,  History  of  Warrick,  Spencer,  and 
Perry  Counties,  Goodspeed  Brothers,  Boston. 

15.  Brown,  Charles  Reynolds,  Lincoln,  The  Greatest  Man 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  The  MacMillan  Co.,  New 
York,  1923. 

16.  Browne,  Francis  Fisher,  The  Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York,  1914. 

17.  Bruno,  Dr.  Frank  J.,  in  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch,  Feb- 
ruary 6,  1926. 

18.  Butterworth,  Hezekiah,  In  the  Boyhood  of  Lincoln,  D. 
Appleton  and  Co.,  1892. 

250 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  251 

19.  Carpenter,  Frank  B.,  Six  Months  at  the  White  House, 
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22.  Chittenden,  L.  E.,  Recollections  of  President  Lincoln  and 
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26.  Dodge,  Daniel  Kilham,  Abraham  Lincoln — Master  of 
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29.  Ehrmann,  Bess  V.,  "The  Lincoln  Inquiry,"  Indiana 
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1,  1864. 


252  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

38.  Hanby,  Mrs.  Alice  L.  Harper,  "The  Lincoln  Inquiry — 
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39.  Hapgood,  Norman,  Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Man  of  the 
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40.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Hemdon's  Lincoln,  The  True  Story 
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41.  Hill,  John  Wesley,  Abraham  Lincoln — Man  of  God,  G.  P. 
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42.  Hitchcock,  Caroline  Hanks,  Nancy  Hanks,  The  Story  of 
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43.  Hobson,  J.  T.,  Footprints  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Ot- 
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44.  Hughes,  Mrs.  S.  C,  "Terre  Haute  Register  Mailing 
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June,  1926. 

45.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Correspondence  between  Lincoln 
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46.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Inaugural  Address,"  Proceedings  of 
the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  Bulletin 
No.  16,  October,  1922. 

47.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "Methodism  in  Southern  Indiana," 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  No.  2,  June, 
1921. 

48.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Coming  of  the  English  to  In- 
diana in  1817  and  Their  Hoosier  Neighbors,"  Indiana 
Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XV,  No.  2,  June,  1919. 

49.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  De  Bruler  Family  as  Typical 
Pioneers,"  Indiana  Historical  Society  Publications,  Vol. 
VIII,  No.  3,  1925. 

50.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Historical  Society  Publica- 
tions, Vol.  VIII,  No.  3,  1925. 

51.  Iglehart,  John  E.,  "The  Life  and  Times  of  John  Shra- 
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March,  1921. 

52.  Irelan,  John  Robert,  The  Republic,  Fairbanks  and  Pal- 
mer Publishing  Co.,  Chicago,  1888. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  253 

53.  Jackson,  S.  Trevena,  Lincoln's  Use  of  the  Bible,  Eaton 
and  Mains,  New  York,  1909. 

54.  Jones,  Major  Evan  Rowland,  Lincoln,  Stanton,  and 
Grant,  Frederick  Warne  and  Co.,  London,  1875. 

55.  Kiper,  Roscoe,  "Lincoln's  Environment  in  Indiana,"  In- 
diana History  Bulletin,  Extra  Number,  December,  1925. 

56.  Lamon,  Ward  Hill,  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
18U7-1865,  A.  C.  McClurg  and  Co.,  Chicago,  1895. 

57.  Lamon,  Ward  Hill,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  James 
R.  Osgood  and  Co.,  Boston,  1872. 

58.  Leland,  Charles  Godfrey,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the 
Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  United  States,  Merrill  and 
Baker,  New  York,  1879. 

59.  Lewis,  E.  T.,  in  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  February  12, 
1899. 

60.  Lindley,  Harlow,  Indiana  as  Seen  by  Early  Travelers, 
Indiana  Historical  Commission,  Indianapolis,  1916. 

61.  Mabie,  Hamilton  W.,  "Lincoln's  Self-Education,"  The 
Chautauquan,  Apil,  1900. 

62.  Mabie,  Hamilton  W.,  "The  Education  of  Lincoln,"  The 
Outlook,  February  20,  1904. 

63.  Morgan,  James,  Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Boy  and  the 
Man,  The  MacMillan  Co.,  New  York,  1908. 

64.  Murr,  J.  Edward,  "Lincoln  in  Indiana,"  Indiana  Maga- 
zine of  History,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  4,  December,  1917;  Vol. 
XIV,  No.  1,  March,  1918;  No.  2,  June,  1918. 

65.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  Abraham  Lincoln,  A  History,  The  Cen- 
tury Company,  New  York,  1890. 

66.  Nicolay,  John  G.,  A  Short  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
The  Century  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

67.  Onstott,  T.  G.,  Lincoln  and  Salem,  T.  G.  Onstott,  For- 
est City,  Illinois,  1902. 

68.  Pickering,  Governor  William,  in  Danville,  Illinois,  News, 
February  12,  1904. 

69.  Raleigh,  Eldora  Minor,  "John  A.  Brackenridge,"  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society, 
Bulletin  No.  16,  1922. 

70.  Report  of  the  Lincoln  Highway  Commission  to  Gover- 
nor Ralston,  1916. 

71.  Rothschild,  Alonzo,  Honest  Abe,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co., 
Boston,  1917. 


254  LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 

72.  Scott,  The  Indiana  Gazateer. 

73.  Stoddard,  W.  O.,  The  Boy  Lincoln,  D.  Appleton  and  Co., 
New  York,  1905. 

74.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  Boy  Scouts'  Life  of  Lincoln,  The  Mac- 
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75.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  Har- 
per and  Brothers,  New  York,  1924. 

76.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
S.  S.  McClure,  New  York,  1896. 

77.  Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Mac- 
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78.  Thayer,  William  M.,  The  Pioner  Boy,  Walker  and  Wise, 
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79.  Thwaites,  R.  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  A.  H.  Clark, 
1904. 

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81.  Turner,  F.  G.,  "Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  Ameri- 
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85.  Webster,  Noah,  The  Elementary  Spelling  Book,  D.  Ap- 
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Bulletin,  Extra  Number,  1925. 


INDEX 


Aesop's  Fables,   influence  on 

Lincoln,  90  f. 
Anthony,  James,  116. 
Armstrong,  Bertha  Cox,  115. 
Armstrong,  Ida  D.,  136, 181  f . 
Atkinson,  Eleanor,  13,  48. 

Baker,  Charles  T.,  on  Lin- 
coln's schooling  in  Indiana, 
59. 

Battell,  Charles  I.,  231. 

Barnett,  John  McK.,  229. 

Barton,  William  E.,  on  the 
illegitimacy  of  Nancy 
Hanks,  19;  on  the  descrip- 
tion of  Nancy  Hanks,  21; 
on  Lincoln's  environment 
in  Indiana,  55;  on  the 
books  Lincoln  read,  87;  on 
Lincoln's  appearance, 
167  f ;  on  the  statements  of 
Christopher  Columbus  Gra- 
ham, 216  ff. 

Bible,  influence  on  Lincoln, 
85  ff. 

"Blue  Back  Speller,"  influ- 
ence on  Lincoln,  90,  219  f. 

Blue  Grass   Settlement,   115. 

Books,  read  by  Lincoln,  82  ff; 
their  influence  on  him,  87 
ff. 

Boone,  Ratliff,  influence  on 
Lincoln,  106  ff. 

Breckenridge,  John,  pleads 
murder  case  attended  by 
Lincoln,  105  f. 

Breckenridge,  John  A.,  influ- 
ence on  Lincoln,  105. 

Britton,  Alexander,  228. 

Britton,  Thomas  P.,  228. 

British  Settlement,  109  ff. 

Brooner,  Allen,  205,  230. 

Brown,  Charles  Reynolds, 
210. 


Cartwright,  Peter,  133. 

Cassidy,  Luke,  226  f. 

Cawson,  James,  brought  li- 
brary from  England  to 
British  Settlement,  115. 

Chittenden,  L.  E.,  on  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Bible  on  Lin- 
coln, 133  f. 

"Chronicles  of  Reuben,"  126, 
178  f. 

Coffin,  Charles  C,  on  Lin- 
coln's schooling  in  Ken- 
tucky, 58. 

Coggins,  J.  C,  32. 

Coles,  Edward,  140  f. 

Cox,  Rev.  John  E.,  on  Judge 
Pitcher  on  Lincoln,  104  f. 

Cissna,  Dr.   Stephen  P.,  229. 

Clark,  Amos,  231. 

Crawford,  Andrew,  Lincoln's 
school  teacher,  64. 

Crawford,  Josiah,  66 ;  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  70,  94. 

Crawford,  Mrs.  Josiah,  on 
Lincoln's  courtesy,  64;  on 
Lincoln's  politics,  106  f. 

Davis,    David,   on   the   books 

Lincoln  read,  87. 
De    Bruler,    Lemuel    Quincy, 

232. 

Eggleston,  Edward,  49  f. 

Ehrmann,  Mrs.  Bess,  on  Lin- 
coln's neighbors  in  Indiana, 
100  f. 

Embree,  Elisha,  233. 

Evans,  James,  225. 

Evans,  Robert  M.,  225. 

Gentry,  James,  209. 
Gentry,  James,  Sr.,  228. 
Gentry,  Joseph,  79,178. 
Gentry,  Kate,  166. 


255 


256 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


Graham,  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, affidavit  of,  213  f; 
statement  of,  214  ff. 

Graham,  John  W.,  227  f. 

Grant,  Luke,  116. 

Grass,  Daniel,  227. 

"Gray  Goose  Case,"  79  ff. 

Greathouse,  John,  228. 

Grigsby,  Nathaniel,  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  69,  74. 

Grigsby,  Redmond,  207. 

Grigsby,  William,  162  f. 

Gulliver,  John  Putnam,  77. 

Hackelman,  Absolom,  229. 

Hale,  Levi,  230. 

Hall,  Baynard  Rush,  49  f. 

Hall,  Judge  James,  on  the 
culture  of  Indiana  pion- 
eers, 115. 

Hall,  Wesley,  85  f,  174  f. 

Hammond,  Samuel,  229. 

Hanby,  Mrs.  Alice  L.  Harper, 
on  the  influence  of  Judge 
Pitcher  on  Lincoln,  102  ff. 

Hanks,  Dennis,  on  the  legiti- 
macy of  Nancy  Hanks,  19; 
on  the  description  of  Nan- 
cy Hanks,  22;  on  Sally 
Bush  Lincoln,  48;  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  69,  72;  on 
the  way  Lincoln  learned, 
75  f ;  on  the  books  Lincoln 
read,  84;  on  Aesop's  Fa- 
bles, 90  f;  on  Lincoln's 
knowledge  of  the  Owenite 
Settlement,  120  f;  on  Lin- 
coln's river  trips,  143;  on 
Lincoln's  sports  and  recre- 
ation, 158  f;  on  Lincoln's 
personal  appearance,  166 
f ;  estimate  of  Lincoln,  186. 

Hanks,  John,  19,  21,  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  68  f,  205. 

Hanks,  Joseph,  16,  17,  20, 
211  f. 

Hanks,  Nancy,  2,  13,  mar- 
riage of,  16. 

Harrison,  Elisha,  231. 

Hart,  David,  231. 


Haycraft,  Samuel,  45;  on 
Lincoln's  schooling  in  Ken- 
tucky, 58. 

Hazel,  Caleb,  Lincoln's 
school  teacher  in  Kentucky, 
56. 

Herndon,  William  H.,  on  the 
illegitimacy  of  Lincoln's 
mother,  18;  did  not  know 
the  real  environment  of 
Lincoln  in  Indiana,  51  ff; 
influence  of  Indiana  train- 
ing, 192  f. 

Hitchcock,  Mrs.  Caroline 
Hanks,  15. 

Hobson,  Rev.  J.  T.,  209. 

Hornbrook,  Saunders,  110. 

Huff,  Aquila,  231. 

Iglehart,  John  E.,  on  the 
classes  of  society  in  South- 
ern Indiana,  49;  on  Hall's 
New  Purchase,  50;  on  the 
Revised  Statutes  of  In- 
diana, 95  f;  on  the  influ- 
ence of  Judge  Pitcher  on 
Lincoln,  101  f;  on  the 
British  Settlement,  109  ff; 
on  Birbeck's  account  of  the 
common  people  of  Southern 
Indiana,  114  f;  influence 
of  Indiana  environment  on 
Lincoln,  187  ff;  the  Lin- 
coln type  is  a  Hoosier  type, 
200  f. 

Iglehart,  John,  110  f. 

Iglehart,  Levi,  Sr.,  232. 

Johnston,  John  D.,  Lincoln's 

stepbrother,  152  f. 
Johnston,    Sarah    Bush,    13; 

description  of,  46  ff. 
Johnston,  Washington,  226. 
Jones's  store   in   Gentryville, 

153. 

Kentucky  Preceptor,  influ- 
ence on  Lincoln,  94. 

Kidd,  T.  W.  S.,  on  Lincoln's 
romance,  129. 


INDEX 


257 


Lamar,  John,  on  Lincoln's 
education,  67;  on  Lincoln's 
wit  and  humor,  179. 

Lambert,  William  H.,  Lin- 
colniana,  61. 

Lamon,  Ward  H.,  18;  on  Sa- 
rah Bush  Johnston,  47;  on 
Lincoln's  early  environ- 
ment, 53  f. 

Lane,  Joseph,  231. 

Langdon,  Thomas,  229. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  grandfa- 
ther of  the  President,  1. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  birth  of, 
2;  estimate  of  his  mother, 
22  f ;  stories  of  his  illegiti- 
mate birth,  26  ff;  his  life  in 
Kentucky,  41;  schooling  in 
Kentucky,  56  ff;  schooling 
in  Indiana,  58  ff;  education 
of  65  ff;  his  opportunities 
for  an  education,  76  f ;  in- 
terested in  law,  78  f;  his 
first  public  address,  the 
"Gray  Goose  Case,"  79  f; 
books  he  read,  82  ff;  news- 
papers he  read,  86 ;  a 
Jackson  Democrat,  107 ; 
writings  of,  123  ff ;  attitude 
toward  music,  131;  relig- 
ious beliefs,  133  ff;  favo- 
rite Bible  quotation,  135; 
views  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion, 140  ff ;  as  a  story  tel- 
ler, 160  f;  his  boyhood 
fights,  162  ff;  dress,  165  f ; 
personal  appearance,  166 
f ;  his  kindness,  168  ff;  his 
honesty,  171  ff;  never 
drank  liquor  or  used  to- 
bacco, 174  ff;  his  wit  and 
humor,  178  ff;  courtship 
in  Indiana,  180  ff;  had  no 
confidants,  182  f;  believed 
in  dreams  and  tokens,  183 
ff;  influence  of  Indiana  en- 
vironment, 187  ff;  adoles- 
cent years,  190  ff;  reverts 
to  his  boyhod  days,  197  f ; 
his  mysticism,  198  f;  em- 


bodiment of  the  pioneer 
spirit  of  the  Old  North- 
west, 200  ff;  Lincoln  the 
man  is  Lincoln  the  boy, 
203 ;  his  neighbors  in 
Southern  Indiana,  225  ff. 

Lincoln,  Edward,  1. 

Lincoln,  John,  1. 

Lincoln,  Josiah,  2. 

Lincoln,  Mordecai,  1,  2,  4. 

Lincoln,  Nancy  Hanks,  influ- 
ence on  Abraham,  23  f; 
death  of,  24. 

Lincoln,  Sally  Bush,  a  Chris- 
tian woman,  22;  influence 
upon  Lincoln,  23;  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  67;  opin- 
ion of  Lincoln,  185  f. 

Lincoln,  Samuel,  1. 

Lincoln,  Thomas,  birth  of,  2; 
description  of,  3 ;  his 
youth,  3;  occupations  of,  4 
ff;  as  a  farmer,  6;  as  a 
citizen,  7;  as  a  church 
member,  7  f ;  education  of, 
8;  ancestry  of,  8  f;  mis- 
taken opinions  of  biogra- 
phers on,  9  ff;  moves  to 
Indiana,  43;  marriage  of 
to  Sarah  Bush  Johnston, 
45  f. 

Lesueur,  Charles  Alexander, 
235. 

McBride,  Robert  W.,  Lincoln 
an  Indiana  product,  191  f. 

Maidlow,  Edward,  110. 

Marriage  bond  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks, 
213. 

Marriage  return  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks, 
212. 

Merwin,  James  B.,  178. 

Morgan,  James,  227. 

Murr,  Rev.  J.  Edward,  on  the 
books  Lincoln  read,  85  f; 
on  the  culture  of  South- 
ern Indiana,  108  f ;  on  Lin- 


258 


LINCOLN  THE  HOOSIER 


coin's  insight  into  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery,  142; 
proves  that  Lincoln  was 
not  lazy,  156;  on  Lincoln's 
fight  with  William  Grigs- 
by,  163;  influence  of  In- 
diana environment  upon 
Lincoln,  188  f. 

Naney,  John,  229. 
Newspapers,  read  by  Lincoln, 


Onstott,  T.  G.,  176  f. 
Owen,  Robert,  117  f,  194. 
Owen,  Robert  Dale,  233  f. 
Owenite,   Settlement,   117   ff, 
233  ff. 

Parrett,  Robert,  111. 

Pate,  Squire,  acquits  Lincoln 
in  his  first  law  case,  78  f. 

Pitcher,  Judge  John,  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  104;  influ- 
ence on  Lincoln,  102  ff; 
views  on  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, 141. 

Pratt,  Silas  G.,  172  f. 

Prince,  William,  233. 

Proctor,  John,  229. 

Raleigh,  Mrs.  Eldora  Minor, 
on  the  influence  of  Judge 
Breckenridge  on  Lincoln, 
105. 

Reid,  Rev.  Isaac,  on  the  cul- 
ture of  Indiana  pioneers, 
115. 

Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana, 
influence  on  Lincoln,  95  ff. 

Richardson,  William,  on  Lin- 
coln's strength,  146  f. 

Riney,  Zachariah,  Lincoln's 
school  teacher  in  Kentucky, 
56. 

Robb,  David,  232  f. 

Robey,  Anna,  on  Lincoln's  ed- 
ucation, 70  f. 


Saundersville,  110. 
Say,  Thomas,  234. 
Scott,  Samuel,  117,  232. 
Sister    Melania    (Buckman), 
Lincoln's  first  teacher,  57. 
Statelar,  George,  230. 

Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  on  Lincoln's 
view  on  slavery,  144  f. 

Taylor,  Green  B.,  on  Lin- 
coln's education,  70. 

Taylor,  James,  employs  Lin- 
coln, 149. 

Todd,  Mary,  179  f. 

Troost,  Gerard,  234. 

Turner,  F.  G.,  on  Lincoln  as 
the  embodiment  of  the  pi- 
oneer spirit  of  the  Old 
Northwest,  201  f. 

Turnham,  David,  his  Revised 
Statutes  of  Indiana  read  by 
Lincoln,  95  ff;  on  Lincoln's 
mental  growth,  167;  230  f. 

Varner,  Louis,  137. 
Veatch,  Isaac,  230. 

Warren,  Louis  A.,  on  the  le- 
gitimacy of  Nancy  Hanks, 
20,  21 ;  on  Lincoln's  melan- 
choly disposition,  200. 

Weems's  Life  of  Washington, 
influence  on  Lincoln,  91  ff; 
221  ff. 

Weik,  Jesse,  on  Lincoln's  en- 
vironment in  Indiana,  52  f. 

Wheeler,  Richard  and  Joseph, 
111  f. 

Wood,  William,  lends  Lincoln 
his  papers,  123  f. 

Wright,  Fanny,  influence  on 
Lincoln,  194,  235. 

Wright,  Jeffy,  230. 

Young,  Jacob,  230. 


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